Dan Spoon ‘Wunkirmian’

ETHNIC GROUP
Dan

COUNTRY

Liberia.

MATERIAL
Wood, pigment, patina.

DIMENTIONS

20.75″ inches tall (52.7 cm)

CIRCA

Estimated mid 20th Century.

PROVENANCE

Jean-Pierre Hallet (1927 – 2004)

EXHIBITED
No known exhibitions

LITERATURE

No known publications

CATALOGUE NOTE

A ceremonial Dan spoon known as “Wunkirmian”, carved with anthropomorphic lower features, the stem decorated in fine linear incisions. Very good condition except for slight chip at the top rim of the spoon.

Some “Wunkirmian” feast spoons are used by the elected “most hospitable woman of the village” to distribute cooked rice to fellow villagers after the rice harvest have partial torsos and legs as handles. The empty spoon bowl may then be read as a concave human face, or, when it is heaped full of cooked rice, as an image of a pregnant woman. The feast spoon illustrates and underscores the value placed upon human and crop fertility for continuity.