Hand carved wooden pitcher.

I know very little. Found only one other with a 2 day search.

 

This is the one I found that matched. http://ancientpoint.com/inf/191282-..._art_carved_wood_face_jug_pitcher_nr_yqz.html

 

African. I had one not unlike it not too long ago:

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/palm-wine-cup.57514/

 

I’d like to find out how much it’s worth? I have people who want to buy. I just don’t know how much to ask

 

I can't offer much help for you there. In general it's a policy not to offer values on this forum, as that can be fraught.

With mine, I traded it with a guy who collects African arts and who had an Inuit stone carving I liked.

Good luck with it!

 

I thought it might be of interest to see all that have been found in one place, for comparison. There were actually 3 listed on iCollector, all described as coming from a private collection, collected between 1910 and 1930, and attributed to the Kuba. With a starting price of $150, none sold in the 2016 auction.

All look like they may have been made by the same hand. They also seem to have repairs and variations of what may be artificial ageing/patination that make me somewhat suspicious.

It would be nice to find a better documented example.

https://www.icollector.com/1-of-3-African-Kuba-Anthropomorphic-cup-Democratic_i24089700


https://www.icollector.com/2-of-3-African-Kuba-Anthropomorphic-cup-Democratic_i24089701


https://www.icollector.com/3-of-3-African-Kuba-Anthropomorphic-cup-Democratic_i24089702


https://www.antiquers.com/threads/palm-wine-cup.57514/

This one is described as African American folk art:


http://ancientpoint.com/inf/191282-..._art_carved_wood_face_jug_pitcher_nr_yqz.html

Adding one more located by @James Desbiens:


https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6543938_319-african-face-jug-pitcher-carved-wood-and-measure

 

Really a mystery! I found mine, which I think may have been a little smaller than some of the others, and is certainly smaller than the one posted by James earlier today, in a eclectic vintage shop, from a seller who had nothing else like it. It was cheap ($8?), unlabeled, and unique among the other items this particular seller had.

In other words, I have nothing else to go on!

 

Perhaps @Taupou might know something?

 

I can only say that these are not anything I am familiar with, and look nothing like traditional Kuba art.

Considering the rather low prices these have been purchased for, I might be tempted to buy one, just as a "research" project, and if I had the time.

But from what has been discussed on these two threads, I wouldn't be in a hurry to sell these as authentic pieces of tribal art until I found similar examples in reputable museum collections, or in books that have been fact-checked. Auction houses, the internet, and those infamous "private collections" can't be considered reliable references. In other words, I would be suspicious, as well.

 

kuba cups....can be really lovely..

 

And the carving is usually excellent, with attention to detail.
This is what I wrote in the other thread:

"The Kuba cups I have seen are intricately carved, smooth and with much more perfection in the facial features that this one has."

 

@James Desbiens - I have copied your additional photos to this thread. Please continue the discussion here, rather than going to the older thread started by @Potteryplease.

 

I have found several examples of similarly shaped cups/vessels, carved without a face. All are attributed to the Congo region, but not by sources that I would rely on being authoritative. However, it does seem to indicate an actual tradition in the area. Still in search of a well documented example......


https://www.catawiki.com/l/21372223-ancient-wooden-cups-kuba-d-r-congo


https://www.catawiki.com/l/22513957-ancient-wooden-cups-kuba-d-r-congo


https://thenigerbend.com/products/vintage-wooden-tshi-vessel-cup-from-congo-africa-7-x-5-x-6


https://www.ebay.com/itm/1745390809...XWAWBr9mn0RM5XErqEGmnX6_0pcqy_RBoCUNIQAvD_BwE

 

The seller of the second last one says it is Tshi(luba). The Tshiluba are a different people, with a different culture and language. They also live in Congo, but not in the same part as the Kuba. I think they are neighbours.
Maybe the face cups are are Tshiluba too?

 

It is my understanding that Tshiluba (or Tshi) refers to a language group, spoken by several ethnic groups in the eastern Congo region. I was thinking of contacting that gallery to see if they can be more precise about the cup they have on offer, and if they have encountered similar ones carved with faces.

 

Could be. I seem to remember the Kuba speak Swahili or am I way off?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if at least some Kuba speak Swahili. It serves as a "lingua-franca" in much of eastern Africa. But their native language is Bushongo. The official language of the Democratic Republic of Congo is French, with 4 native national languages recognized - Kituba/Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba. There are also several hundred additional native languages in the region. It is not unusual for Africans to be multi-multi lingual.

 

True. As it is in many parts of the world. Even we Dutch have six officially recognized languages and many more dialects. And since we live in a small country, most people speak several foreign languages too.

 

I did email David Spetka, owner of The Niger Bend gallery, who has one of the similar cups without a face. He has given me permission to post his candid and informative reply here. His experience, I believe, is characteristic of how the art trade works in Africa (and other places as well).

He writes:

You ask for more specific information about the origin of the cup you saw on our website. I have been traveling extensively in Africa for more than 40 years. For most of that time I was concentrating in West Africa and have only begun to spend more time in East Africa in the last few years - the pandemic year notwithstanding. Although I always want to know as much about everything I obtain during my travels it is often difficult to learn as much about an item as I might want to know. My primary focus is to find the most unusual items so that I might distinguish myself in the market by the exclusivity of those items. I look everywhere I can but primarily find what I'm looking for in the possession of dealers with whom I have become acquainted over the years. It is very difficult to find an item in situ as this would require much more time and expenditure than the amount I could ever recover from its sale. Regrettably the dealers who have the items I prefer tend not to know very much about any of their pieces; their interest is just to buy it and sell it. Whenever I attempt to determine more information about the origin of an item they will prevaricate, either because they just don't know (because they got it from another dealer, who could have gotten it from another dealer) or because they want to keep their sources secret. It is also true that most of the dealers I know simply have no interest in knowing as much about an item as we might want to know. Additionally, because they know that their customers, i.e., myself, will ask these questions they may or may not have an accurate answer. On multiple occasions when I have asked questions of origin and age the answers I got, although fervently delivered, just made no sense. I have come not to put very much credence in what any dealers tell me.

The first time I ever saw these cups was in Nairobi in the possession of a dealer I know who is actually based in Kigali, Rwanda. All he told me about them is that they are called Tshi and come from Congo. He knew no more about them than that. I have since seen them in many other places around the areas I have explored in East Africa: Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. I have yet to venture into Eastern Congo (I was in Kinshasa many years ago) as it is a turbulent area. Ebola is still present there. There is continuing civil strife and just recently a volcano erupted in Goma. The reason so much Congolese material is available in the region outside of Congo is that so many Congolese people are leaving Congo and the surrounding areas are so much more stable. I regret I can give you no more specific information than that.

I have never seen any of these same items with human representation or any other designs on them. That's not to say they don't exist; I just haven't seen them. Please send me photos of any items whose authenticity you question and I'll send them to a friend of mine who might know more. My own inclination is to say that such items may have been made for the trade, obviously a very common phenomenon.

If you are interested in our Tshi cups I would be happy to send you photos of others that we have. Not all are yet pictured on our site.

All the best,
David Spetka
The Niger Bend

 

That was a very nice reply, and he really took the time to explain the situation.

As I was reading it, I thought of @kristiaan , our Belgian member who also knows about Congolese items. Maybe he has come across these.
Belgium has a lot of items from DR Congo because it used to be a Belgian colony, or more correctly, the colony of the king of the Belgians.