Take your pick from this month’s tribal art auctions
19 February 2020 The collecting and trading in objects known as Tribal art is a growing category at auction.
Hannam’s will offer 200 lots on February 26 that were collected in the 1950s.
It covers items and artefacts and works of art made by indigenous peoples and began as a collecting area when anthropologists started acquiring and studying these items in the 19th century.
Nowadays works are valued for their craftsmanship and decorative quality as well as for their historical and social interest.
The geographical spread in this sector ranges from Oceanic (Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand), African, Native American and South American art. Pre-Columbian works represent a sought-after sector – art from the Americas dating from before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Today Woolley & Wallis holds its regular tribal art and antiquities sale (February 19) of 799 lots.
The tribal art and antiquities sale at Woolley & Wallis on February 19 includes a Yoruba Ijebu bronze hand bell or omo estimated at £8000-12,000.
Among the items is an 8in (20cm) Yoruba Ijebu bronze hand bell or omo.
Each Yoruba chief had a face bell cast, which was later worn by his son draped over the right shoulder. This example has the double crescent to the forehead and scarifications from the mouth: symbols of the Oshugbo secret society that is prominent in the Ijebu region.
Last sold in Amsterdam in 2002, the estimate is £8000-12,000. View and bid the Yoruba bell via the saleroom.com.
Next week (February 26), Hannam’s will offer 200 lots of tribal art that were bought by their owner in the 1950s. The collection is being offered at auction for the first time.
The auction house will follow this sale with another 2000 items of tribal art across the next six months.
A Baulé mask that sold for a hammer price of €4m (£3.57m) at Sotheby’s Paris auction in 2019 of the Marceau Rivière collection. Image: Sotheby’s/ArtDigital Studio.
The rarest and most desired tribal art works can fetch millions such as in 2019 when a 250-lot auction of African artworks took a premium-inclusive total of just under €11.5m (£10.25m). It had been assembled by Marceau Rivière, the well-known dealer, author and art historian, over half a century.