Eyema-o-byeri
Cameroon, 19th c.

Wood and copper, 40 cm

Provenance:
Walter Kaiser Collection (1921-2009), Stuttgart
Dr. Helmut Zake Collection, Heidelberg
Egon Guenther (1921-2015) Collection, Johannesburg (from 1971 to 2000)
Sotheby's, New York, African Art from the Egon Guenther Family Collection, 18 November 2000, lot 79
Philippe Guimiot & Domitilla de Grunne Collection, Brussels, 2009
Sotheby's, Paris, ""Philippe Guimiot et Domitilla de Grunne Collection d'Art Premier"", 17 June 2009, lot 29
Private collection, 2009
Ligabue Collection, Venice (2017)

Published:
Gigi Pezzoli, Act two: 'Traditional African art' in the exhibition, in ”Il Cacciatore Bianco / The White Hunter. Memorie e rappresentazioni africane, in: ""Il Cacciatore Bianco / The White Hunter"", ed. by Marco Scotini & Elisabetta Galasso, Berlin, Archive Books, 2017, p.122

Exhibited:
Milan, FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Il Cacciatore Bianco. Memorie e rappresentazioni africane / The White Hunter. African memories and representations, 31 March-6 June 2017

Exceptional Fang ancestor figure.

Its provenance, the Stuttgart dealer, Walter Kaiser, as well as its age, indicated by its beautiful patina, point to German acquisition before 1915. Later on, it found its way to the fabulous collection of Philippe Guimiot. During this collector’s lifetime, and after his passing, the objects chosen by Guimiot never failed to be exceptional. His vast knowledge and critical eye enabled him to discern flawlessly the different stylistic canons of African ethnic art, and his interest was solely focused on the pieces that were of the greatest aesthetic quality, as the Fang sculpture presented here proves so eloquently.

Among the Fang, bodily relics of revered ancestors held great spiritual power. They were kept in reliquary boxes that were topped by sculptures such as this one to protect their content. Vehicles of mediation between the world of the living and that of the dead, Fang reliquary guardians or Eyema-o-byeri were seen as symbolic incarnations of the power of the ancestors. Like the sacred bones, the sculpted effigies were also the object of ritual libations to renew their potency.