Early 20th C. Baule Iron & Wood Gong & Lawle Striker

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Indigenous Art - Ralph T. Coe Center, Santa F...

By Artemis Fine Arts

Aug 22, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-08-22 10:00:00 2025-08-22 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Indigenous Art - Ralph T. Coe Center, Santa Fe, NM https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/indigenous-art---ralph-t-coe-center-santa-fe-nm-20324
Featuring works of art from the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a non-profit focused on promoting Indigenous Arts globally. All proceeds from the sale of these items will support future grants to Rehoming Program participants. Artemis Fine Arts info@artemisfinearts.com

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• Lot Description
  West Africa, Ivory Coast, Baule people, ca. early 20th century CE. A rare and richly encrusted example of a Baule diviner's iron gong and its matching carved wood striker, or lowre (also called lawle), used by a Mbra trance diviner (komien) as both a ritual instrument and a sculptural statement of professional status. The gong itself is surmounted by an elaborately carved wooden handle in the form of a serene, mask-like human face framed within a crescent crest. The facial rendering echoes motifs from Baule men's sacred helmet masks (bo nun amuin), which, intriguingly, appear even on implements used by women diviners. The iron bell retains its smooth, curved form and deep patination from prolonged ritual handling. The wooden striker is a virtuoso work in miniature sculpture, its grip twisted in a precise rope-like spiral that Baule master carvers regard as a mark of skill, topped with a carved head whose features mirror the gong handle. Size of larger (gong): 3.9" W x 14.2" H (9.9 cm x 36.1 cm); 16.7" H (42.4 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  A petite woven pad cushions the hammering end. Komien use the gong and striker to summon and sustain the trance state required to communicate with the asye usu (nature spirits). The rhythmic metallic ring, struck in private before public consultations, prepares the diviner to enter possession. During ceremonies, the sound may continue for hours, restarting as needed to renew the trance. As noted by Susan Vogel, the twisted stem of such strikers is a purely aesthetic flourish - an opportunity for the sculptor to display technical mastery - while the helmet mask motif remains enigmatic in its ritual placement.
  
  This pair is exceptional for the retention of a thick sacrificial patina, the result of decades of offerings of blood and milk, regularly applied during divinatory rites. The effect is both visual and talismanic, imbuing the objects with layered ritual potency. Such elaborate lawle strikers differ markedly from the plain utilitarian kokowa type, their ornate surfaces and carved iconography contributing to the theatricality of Baule divination, where sculpture, costume, dance, and music merge into a unified sacred performance.
  
  Provenance: Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, acquired via descent in 2010; ex-private collection of Ralph T. Coe, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, purchased in Hawaii ca. 2000; ex-Dr. Peter Furst
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #196399

  Condition

  Both have weathering to surface and some fraying to ropes, as well as to fabric on pad of striker. Otherwise, bot h are intact with rich patina and encrustations to surface.
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