Eket Female Figure Nigeria

Overall Condition: Fair. Most of our pieces have spent decades on at least two continents, and have been treasured by several owners.   Small splits, scrapes and cracks are a normal part of their patina attesting to their age and extensive use.  We examine each piece carefully when we receive it and report any damage we find in our listings.  Please look carefully at the pictures which may also reveal condition and damage.

Damage/Repair: Extensive wear, hole in head

The Eket are a large sub-group of the Ibibio and number around 1,000,000. They live to the west of the Ibibio near the Cross River. Like most cultures from this area, they have an extensive pantheon of cults and rituals, with the "Ekpo" society the dominant arbiter of social and ritual life. Economically, they are exporters of palm oil. They are primarily farmers, unlike their neighbors the Ekoi who depend on fishing. The importance of crops, particularly yams, has led to festivals which celebrate the harvest. Headdresses such as this are used during festivals to celebrate the spirits of fecundity and fertility of humans, animals and plants which presence is insured by these headdresses. These headdresses are also documented as being used in the annual ceremonies of the Ogbom cult. Little is known about this cult.

See close similar pieces in Warren M. Robbins & Nancy Ingram Nooter, 2004, AFRICAN ART IN AMERICAN COLLECTION, figs 723-726, p. 277

From the Collection of Robert Pearson, Denver, Colorado

Bob Pearson began collecting African art later in his life. He was a n engineer, inveterate climber, and long-time collector of books and paintings. Spurred by the Douglas Society at the Denver Museum of Art, and his friendship with noted collector George Heggarty, he began building an enormous, eclectic collection. His African art library grew to several hundred books. He loved textiles and “material culture”-things which had domestic use, like spoons, cups, stools, and chairs, as well as masks and carvings. His collection included items from more than thirty African countries, and his fine eye gave him pieces ranging from a golddust scale to huge Dogon figural ladders. Africa Direct is honored to have been chosen to sell them.