Ivory Coast
Baule

Bronze
Early-Mid 20th Century
Length: 16.5 inches
Idiophone – Struck Indirectly – Shaken -Rattle

Bronze figural rattle of the Baule people of the Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire). The finial on top of this rattle shows an elder male with conical neck supporting a head with bulging, protruding eyes, and a bearded face smoking a pipe.

Around one million Baule occupy a part of the central Cote d’Ivoire that is both forest and savanna land. According to the Baule, sculptures allow a closer contact with the supernatural world of ancestors. The ancestral statues, male and female, have a strongly marked, traditional style revealing a slender body, delicate face and high forehead.  Although the ancestor sculpture’s main purpose was to insure the beneficial presence of the ancestor, they had additional uses: to insure fertility, to prevent miscarriages, to bring about good harvests, and generally to promote personal well-being and prosperity.