Soapstone carving of a seated male figure with hands resting on the chin. [SM 23/2/2009]

Collection type: Object
Description: Soapstone carving of a seated male figure with hands resting on the chin. [SM 23/2/2009]
Long description: Soapstone carving of a seated male figure with hands resting on the chin. A hole has been cut out of the stone at the top of the back of the head. Made in imitation of a nomoli figure. [MdeA 23/2/2001]
Geographical reference: Sierra Leone
Africa > Western Africa > Sierra Leone; Freetown
Person: Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Colin Allport
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1974
Date collected: By 1974
Acquisition information: Donated: 24/11/2000
Materials and processes: Material Steatite Stone, Process Carved
Dimensions: Height: max 298 mm, Depth: max 135 mm, Width: max 128 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 2000.52.1
Research and responses: The original nomoli, which have been dug up from time to time in the fields, are thought to have been made in the 12th to 15th centuries. For information on nomoli, see 'House of Stones: Memorial Art of Fifteenth-Century Sierra Leone', by Frederick J. Lamp, in The Art Bulletin, Vol. LXV, no. 2 (1983), pp. 219-37 [offprint in Balfour Library]; 'Ancient Wood Figures from Sierra Leone: Implications for Historical Reconstruction', by Frederick J. Lamp, in African Arts, Vol. XXIII, no. 2 (April 1990), 48-59, 103 [copy in Balfour Library]; and page 470 of Africa: The Art of a Continent, edited by Tom Phillips (London: Royal Academy / Munich, New York: Prestel, 1995) and accompanying entry by W[illiam]H [art]. [MdeA 23/2/2001; JC 14 11 2002]

Search terms: Figure, Religion, Agriculture and Horticulture, Reproduction, Amulet

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