Rare pipe of dignitary Zandé/Mangbetu Democratic Republic of Congo.

Made of wood with a beautiful patina of use caramel shining in places.

Comprising a head of a dignitary with moustache and black streaked beard, eyes barely open, eyebrows marked as well as the mouth. Long neck with a bulge in its center. The hearth is covered with metal and maintained by small curved irons. Ears and nose in high relief.

The part opposite the head has an ovalized half-sphere with five facets alternating black and the patina color of the pipe, it includes on the top opposing blackened chevrons.

Origin :

• Private collection New York acquired in the 1970s
• Sale Sotheby's New York 16 May 2014
• French private collection

Bibliography:

For comparable pipes :

• In African ARTS July 1991, page 76 from the Lang Dungu 1913 collection, for an exhibition of a similar piece at The American Museum of Natural History, New York, June 6, 1990 to January 6, 1991.
• In Pipes anthropomorphes d'Afrique noire collection Francois Raty 2019 (no page number) a very similar pipe may be from the same hand, with mustache but without the beard.