White gold, black hands: ivory sculpture in Congo

Ivory sculpture in Congo, part 1.

This is THE BOOK if you collect or like African Art Ivory’s. Limited editionof 999. Hard cover, A4 format, 280 pages, +/- 1000 color illustrations. Many articles from ivory experts in English, French, and Dutch. I will be on sale in Brussels during the Bruneaf at Galerie Congo, 2 Impasse Saint-Jacques, during the Lega exhibition. Price around 250€.

Never has a book dealt specifically with the ritual use of antique ivory sculptures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – until now.

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Ivory is a touchy subject. People seem reluctant to publicize this appealing medium, fearing that its glorification might lead to the  killing of elephants.

The authors are aware of today’s poaching and illegal trade in African elephant tusks and address the problem directly.

The book opens with an essay by “Renaissance man” Charles Meur, who explains what ivory is and identifies the different animals that produce it. His superb drawings and incisive texts show where elephants were previously living and who their ancestors were.

Congo basin «Ritual Art» specialist Marc Leo Felix details the production and use of traditional ivory sculpture in the Kongo Kingdom between the 16th and 20th centuries.

Musicologist Dr. Ignace De Keyser of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, in Tervuren, Belgium, writes about an astonishing northern Kongo ivory trumpet inspired by an ancient European model.

Dr. Nichole N. Bridges of the Baltimore Museum of Art (USA) describes the 19th century production, along the Loango Coast, of exquisitely sculpted ivory tusks for a newly arrived European clientele.

Some thousand stunning color photographs, drawings, graphs and maps illustrate the four authors’ essays.

I can send you the book for 290€ all costs included:

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Some information about one of the ivory’s illustrated in the book that will be sold at auction in Paris in June : ...