1975.75 Male figure effigy vessel

This vessel depicts a seated male wearing a hat and jacket with carefully rendered details such as decoration on the shoulders, buttons, and buttonholes. The figure holds a flask for liquor in one hand and a drinking cup or glass in the other. During the 19th century, Europeans imported alcoholic beverages, which became African symbols of prestige; their consumption was a privilege of rulers, who were the first to receive imported products.

Woyo males did not make pottery vessels but carved the "proverb" lids that cover them. Voania (Voanya) Muba, a Woyo village chief, was thus self-taught or learned to make pots and model figures in another village. He sold his wares to his neighbors but made nonfunctional pitchers decorated with strictly European subjects for sale to Europeans on the Loango Coast.

Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2015.

n.d.: Robert Jones, Amsterdam

By 1957: Mauwes Collection, the Netherlands

n.d.: John Buxton, Dallas, Texas

1975: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, purchased from above [1]

[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.  

Apply to objects where number equals 1975.75