African ethnographic antique: Senufo/Dogon Bronze/brass divination/fertility ring. Provenance

A beautiful bronze/brass* ring depicting a seated hornbill figure, crocodile and child. The whole seated on a circular woven mat (possibly representing a turtle’s back). This is a ‘divination’ ring. The ring was created using the “lost wax” process. Each ring is original and unique as the mold is destroyed after each casting. This ring has considerable age. Totally unique form absolutely idiosyncratic to the individual who commission it for divination.

According to Senufo creation myth the hornbill was one of the first animals on earth, together with the snake, chamelion, tortoise & crocodile. The hornbill’s beak symbolises the sexual organ.

Many depictions found in these rings belong to animist traditions - few written records exist and “truth is probably to be found somewhere between legend and the theories still held in the minds of old men” (Fisher p111). It can also be difficult to attribute the ethnic identity of these rings due to the mobility of populations within the Sahel area of Africa and the shared use of motifs. (See Cutsem pages13-15).

References: ‘A World of Rings’ Anne Von Cutsem, published by Skira Editore, Italy 2000
‘Africa Adorned’ Angela Fisher’ published by Collins 1984
*Bronze or brass - both copper based alloys with tin and zinc respectively.

Provenance: Ex. Romy Rey Collection.
Romy Rey (1938-2020) was born in Zurich, Switzerland. She trained as an artist in Paris and Geneva before settling in London in the early 1960s where she was a partner in two bookshops in Hampstead and Richmond. She shared her life with the artist, Brian Davies (1942-2014). The whole of her five-storey house in Richmond bustled with her “impeccably curated” collection of ethnographic art. Purchased at one of the disposal auctions

Dimensions:
43mm x 30mm x 23mm
Inside ring diameter: 20mm (also see picture of ring on ring gauge)
Weight: 20.3gm
W1218/10

Condition: Excellent with good patina. Probably the only divination ring in existence with this representation. Museum piece