NUPE DOOR, POSSIBLY BY SAKIWA THE YOUNGER, NIGERIA
Wood, metal
height 67 1/2in (171.5cm)

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New Hampshire

According to Phillips Stevens (“Nupe Wood Carving”, Nigeria Magazine, vol. 88, March 1966, p. 21), “It was Leo Frobenius who, in 1911, established for the Nupe a place among the artisans of Africa; he marvelled at the intricacy of patterns on various items of metal-work and wood-carving. He was fascinated by the patterns of ‘the double spiral’ and ‘the ribboned border style,’ and compared them to decorative motifs employed by the Yoruba to the South and the Hausa, Fulani and some Sudanic tribes to the North…”

Cf. Phillips (ibid., p.32) for similar works by Sakiwa the Younger

source: bonhams.com / auctions/21022/lot/187/