Fine Yoruba Wood Opon Igede Ifa offering bowl. Rare And Superb. 68cm. Nigeria

  
Large Yoruba Wooden "Opon Igede Ifa" offering bowl. Prominent and finely crafted example. The Yoruba form one of the largest tribes in west Africa. There are 30 million Yoruba people in West Africa. They are predominant in Nigeria. 21% of the Nigerian population are Yoruba.

Rare, well-crafted and detailed example. The work of a skilled artisan. The central and dominant female figure is kneeling down while extending a bowl or pot for that holds her hospitality gift. She has a baby clasped to her back with a tie clothe the Yorubas used as an improvised harness to secure a baby to the back of an adult. To either side are attendant figures.

Perhaps a warrior and a hunter. Chalk and Ochre stains, mainly in white and blue, complement the wider use of brown dye throughout surface area. This is an Old and completly authentic bowl and the dye has flaked off generally throughout sections of the entire "Opon Igede Ifa" to now produce an attractive and weathered patination. There is some wood degradation and cracks as to be expected of an Opon Igede Ifa that is several decades old.

Nonetheless, item is in solid and superb collector condition with no weakening to the structure of the wood anywhere. Overall a considerable and significant collector item.

These beautiful items take different forms but this item features the famous female figure kneeling respectfully, as customary in Yoruba culture, extending an offering pots or bowls. This pot or bowl section is used to hold hospitality offerings such as Kolanuts etc. Some of the completely different forms of these pots and bowls may hold all the items and paraphernalia of divination an Ifa priest uses to translate messages from the gods.

It can also contain inner trays with sections to hold divination items such as "Iroke Ifa" or divination tapper. They may also hold Opon Ifa' or divination trays plus other numerous items like divination kolanuts that are receptacles for the sixteen sacred palm nuts used in divination. 68cm high x 30cm wide x 28cm deep.

We sometime therefore send items, especially big items, directly from where they were field-collected as this saves duplication of cost and effort for us.