**Originally Listed At $200**

Western Africa, Ivory Coast, Baule, ca. mid-20th century CE. A lovely hand-carved and red-painted female figure shown seated upon bent legs with an integral chair back for support. The figure boasts delineated legs with a pair of high-heeled boots, pointed breasts and abdomen, bent arms with a bracelet on one wrist and a watch on the other, rolled shoulders, and a thick neck. The stylized visage exhibits almond-shaped eyes beneath arching brows, a prominent triangular nose, an open toothy mouth, and curved ears all beneath a stylized black-painted coiffure. Figures like this are known as "blolo bla" - ancestral spirit wives that would be placed in the home, looked after and attentively cared for, as they were believed to act as mediums to the spirit world. Examples like this are also referred to as "dream lovers," because they are believed to visit the living in their dreams and may serve as oracles who can predict the future or act as a dream lovers. Size: 2.875" W x 10.875" H (7.3 cm x 27.6 cm).

Provenance: private San Francisco, California, USA collection

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#134526

Surface wear and minor abrasions commensurate with age, one stable hairline fissure between the breasts, very minor nicks to head, body, legs, and chair back, and some fading to pigmentation, otherwise intact and very good. Light earthen deposits throughout. Old sticker on bottom of chair back.