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THBBamana Boli, Mali.
About Seller
360 S. Washington Street
Falls Church, VA 22046
United States
Quinn's Auction Galleries is a full service auction and estate services company. We have a range of specialties, from fine art & antiques, to rare books & maps.
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Bid Increments
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|---|---|
| $0 | $10 |
| $300 | $25 |
| $500 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $100 |
| $3,000 | $250 |
| $5,000 | $500 |
| $15,000 | $1,000 |
| $20,000 | $2,000 |
| $30,000 | $2,500 |
| $100,000 | $5,000 |
About Auction
LiveOct 1, 2016 - Oct 2, 2016
Quinn's Auction Galleries dquinn@quinnsauction.com
View Full Catalog (511)
- Lot Description
A Boli figure. Mali, Bamana. Approx. 24"h x 27"w x 9"d.
Provenance: Inventory and Collection from the Estate of Merton D. Simpson. Catalog Note: Inventory and Collection from the Estate of Merton D. Simpson. ﾓThe basic form of this boli resembles a highly simplified cow. It is composed of a wooden core over-modeled with materials such as mud, eggs, chewed kola nuts, sacrificial blood, urine, honey, beer, vegetable fiber, and cow dung. The use of blood, excrement, and urine reflects the belief that these organic substances possess extremely potent spiritual powers.ﾔ As an abstracted form they are ﾓﾅkept in a shrine belonging to a secret Bamana men's association. It is believed to be the embodiment of the spiritual powers of the society. These powers underlie the ability of the association to maintain social control. Today, the Kono society has lost its influence in most Bamana communities due to the conversion of Bamana to Islam.ﾔ brooklynmuseum.org ﾓAmong the most sacred objects in Bamana belief is the boli (pl. boliw), a spiritually endowed object which, according to Conrad (in Colleyn 2001: 28) ""receive[s] sacrifices in order to call upon and influence the vital spiritual force known as nyama. Boliw can be fashioned of virtually any kind of material including wood, bark, stones, tree roots, leather, metal, cloth, bone, hair, animal tails and claws, and human ingredients including blood, excrement, placentas, and pieces of corpse. [... The] boli has been described on a cosmological level as both a symbol of the universe and a receptacle of the forces that animate the universe. It is, moreover, an intermediary that permits communication with the ancestor or supernatural power whose force permeates it. [...] As repositories of enormous spiritual power or nyama, boliw are viewed with awe and fear. They were traditionally the most essential instruments of communication between earthly mortals and the supernatural powers that control nyama, and as such, according to Sarah Brett-Smith, they are an important part of the Bamana judicial structure, inanimate objects to which the Bamana community entrusts its decision making."" In 1931, Michel Leiris, a member of the Dakar-Djibouti Expedition, described a ""boli du kono"", calling it ""one of these bizarre shapes [...] in the form of a pig, always in nougat brown (that is to say congealed blood) that weighs at least fifteen kilos [...]"" (Leiris, 1996 [1934]: 195). Two years later, in 1933, the same boli appeared in Le Minotaure, having captured the attention of the surrealists and the French intellectuals who contributed to this avant-garde magazine: ""the object was brought to the center of an enthusiasm for Primitivism [...] and it was considered one of the masterpieces of the Mus�e de l'Homme"" (Colleyn 2009: 22). Sothebys.com Comparables: 1. Sothebyﾒs Paris 6/22/16 Lot $12,500 2. Sothebyﾒs NY 5/7/16 Lot 47 $40,000 3. Sothebyﾒs NY 5/16/16 Lot 6 $47,500 4. Sothebyﾒs NY 11/15/13 Lot 44 $23,750 " Catalog Note: ﾓThe basic form of this boli resembles a highly simplified cow. It is composed of a wooden core over-modeled with materials such as mud, eggs, chewed kola nuts, sacrificial blood, urine, honey, beer, vegetable fiber, and cow dung. The use of blood, excrement, and urine reflects the belief that these organic substances possess extremely potent spiritual powers.ﾔ As an abstracted form they are ﾓﾅkept in a shrine belonging to a secret Bamana men's association. It is believed to be the embodiment of the spiritual powers of the society. These powers underlie the ability of the association to maintain social control. Today, the Kono society has lost its influence in most Bamana communities due to the conversion of Bamana to Islam.ﾔ brooklynmuseum.org ﾓAmong the most sacred objects in Bamana belief is the boli (pl. boliw), a spiritually endowed object which, according to Conrad (in Colleyn 2001: 28) "receive[s] sacrifices in order to call upon and influence the vital spiritual force known as nyama. Boliw can be fashioned of virtually any kind of material including wood, bark, stones, tree roots, leather, metal, cloth, bone, hair, animal tails and claws, and human ingredients including blood, excrement, placentas, and pieces of corpse. [... The] boli has been described on a cosmological level as both a symbol of the universe and a receptacle of the forces that animate the universe. It is, moreover, an intermediary that permits communication with the ancestor or supernatural power whose force permeates it. [...] As repositories of enormous spiritual power or nyama, boliw are viewed with awe and fear. They were traditionally the most essential instruments of communication between earthly mortals and the supernatural powers that control nyama, and as such, according to Sarah Brett-Smith, they are an important part of the Bamana judicial structure, inanimate objects to which the Bamana community entrusts its decision making." In 1931, Michel Leiris, a member of the Dakar-Djibouti Expedition, described a "boli du kono", calling it "one of these bizarre shapes [...] in the form of a pig, always in nougat brown (that is to say congealed blood) that weighs at least fifteen kilos [...]" (Leiris, 1996 [1934]: 195). Two years later, in 1933, the same boli appeared in Le Minotaure, having captured the attention of the surrealists and the French intellectuals who contributed to this avant-garde magazine: "the object was brought to the center of an enthusiasm for Primitivism [...] and it was considered one of the masterpieces of the Mus�e de l'Homme" (Colleyn 2009: 22). Sothebys.com Comparables: 1. Sothebyﾒs Paris 6/22/16 Lot $12,500 2. Sothebyﾒs NY 5/7/16 Lot 47 $40,000 3. Sothebyﾒs NY 5/16/16 Lot 6 $47,500 4. Sothebyﾒs NY 11/15/13 Lot 44 $23,750 - Shipping Info
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