- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Carved and painted wooden 'colon' figure. Figure of a man, standing, dressed in a military-style uniform. [JC [OPS Move] 19/6/2017]
- Long description
- Carved wooden 'colon' figure. Figure of a man dressed in a green, military-style uniform, including a helmet, black belt, sash and boots. The paint is badly worn and the back of the figure is severely damaged from wood worm. [FB 07/12/2012]
- Geographical reference
- Cultural groups
- Baule
- Date / Period
- Date made: Unknown
- Date collected
- Unknown
- Acquisition information
- Transferred: 26/11/2012
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted
- Dimensions
- Height: max 575 mm, Depth: max 140 mm, Width: max 140 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 2012.125.2
- Research and responses
For a detailed account of the history of the 'colon' figure in Baule art, see 'Outside Imaginings: The Object as Souvenir', Chapter 5 of Dreams and Reverie: Images of Otherworld Mates among the Baule, West Africa, by Philip L. Ravenhill (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), pp. 62-81. Ravenhill explicates the history of the 'colon' figure within Baule society and its later production for the international market. See also page 148 of African Art in Transit, by Christopher B. Steiner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Steiner writes: 'Finally a poignant example of object alteration can be found in one of the recent trends in the Ivoirian art market, namely in the sale of so-called colon or "colonial" statues. Wooden carvings of colon figures (representing either Europeans or Africans in Western attire) are found in societies throughout West Africa. Though bearing elements of European design (clothing, posture, and various accoutrements) these statues were not originally conceived for the market, but rather for indigenous use...'. [FB 17/01/2013]
2012.125.2
Carved and painted wooden 'colon' figure. Figure of a man, standing, dressed in a military-style uniform. [JC [OPS Move] 19/6/2017]
2012.125.2
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.