African Art Experts Stone Bust and Fertility Statue

I was wondering if anyone could help me with identifying the sculptures. I know very little about African Art.

The Bust is some type of stone, it weighs 22 pounds and about 13inches height.

Wood Fertility statue is 12 inches height.

 

Both are quite interesting. Can you please provide a bit more information? Are these things that you own, or are thinking about purchasing? What have you been told about them - did you receive any information about their origin? These look like gallery or museum photographs - did you take them?

 

likely a village Chief depiction of Shona stone carving...
looks to have some age....with all those dings to the face....

the phalic carving is not any African work that I'm aware of....
but I'd guess it's from the 1970's...

 

Ditto on Shona stone carving from Zimbabwe. Soapstone?

 

Yes I own both pieces, these are not gallery photos. Its amazing what type of photos you can take with a good Light box. Do you think its worth getting both pieces appraised or at least the stone bust appraised?

 

Not worth the cost, especially since you can find prices of similar carvings online, like these:
https://atasteofafrica.net/collections/shona-stone-busts

 

unless the base is marked with a famous name........

 

I have been trying to identify your "fertility" figure, looking at features of the carving other than the obvious. A combination of things is leading me to believe it might be from the Fon people of the country of Benin (formerly Dahomey). Unfortunately, wood carvings identified as Fon are not well represented in museum collections for comparison. It also looks like the figure may once have held something, which might have helped with interpretation. However.....

The brimless cap is rather distinctive, and does appear as a common style of headgear among the Fon, including the famous women warriors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey_Amazons


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey_Amazons

This carving is held by the British Museum, identified as Fon, and shows a cap very similar to the one on your figure. Note it is female:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1979-01-333

The Fon are also very fond of the phallus as a symbol of Legba, a so-called trickster god. But these seem to be most common as disembodied representations:

https://www.sftribal.com/product/legba-fon-people-west-africa/

I am curious about the treatment of the chest area on your figure - there seems to be an indication of something ambiguous about the gender, as with the prominent buttocks, which can be seen on women in some Fon iron figures:

https://www.artkhade.com/en/articles/825/asen-forged-memories-of-iron-in-dahomey-vodun-art

So, I am left wondering if, in this case, the exaggerated phallus is more symbolic of strength and power than male fertility. According to the Wikipedia article on the Dahomey women warriors -
"An 1851 published translation of a war chant of the women claims the warriors would chant: "[a]s the blacksmith takes an iron bar and by fire changes its fashion so have we changed our nature. We are no longer women, we are men."

Not to mention the fact that "female warriors of the African kingdom of Dahomey brought back male genitalia to the king as war trophies."
(The (Not-So) Ancient Practice of Anatomical Trophy Taking: An Emphasis on Penile Dismemberment. H. Moreland, M. Moran. The International Journal of Urologic History, Vol.1:1 July 2021.)
https://www.ijuh.org/media/pdf/2021/06/22/Compiled_Vol1_Issue1.pdf#page=47

On the other hand, I may be totally wrong here - but it makes for a good story. I have been to some weird places in this research.