a delightful and touching, old terracotta head from the 

Ashanti - Asante - Akan People, Ghana, West Africa,

it might be a part of a bigger whole, perhaps the upper part of

 a royal Akan funerary or commemorative portrait head - gravemarker, a

Nsodie - meaning: a thing placed on top, or a

Mma - meaning: infant,

or a part of the lid of a 

Abusua Kuruwa - a royal memorial terracotta vessel / container / family pot,

to be filled and left at the gravesite / cemetery, known as Asensie, meaning: places of pots,

because the shaved hair and the absence of pierced lobes for earrings, it probably represents a male,

the absence of long hair might suggest priestly office,

he is holding his right hand to his head, 

there is a trace of a left hand on the other side of the head, 

perhaps it is depicting the man (or child) had headaches during life or before and leading to his death:

"...the special attention a sculptor devoted to capturing specifics of the dead person..."

it is hollow and made of hand-fashioned clay,

it has authentic old patina and authentic old damages,

age unknown, it can be made in the 17th - 19th century,

provenance: the private collection of a former Dutch NATO official, received in the 1970's during one of his trade missions to Africa,

height: circa 16 cm / circa 6.3 inch

weight: circa 510 gr.

some more search terms: ceramic pottery pot lid, ancien, tete en terre cuite funerarie d' Akan, tete portrait commemorative Adanse Asante, eathenware container stopper, sacred grove Asamanferi, Akan funerary sculpture, funerary bust Nkua, abusuwa kuruwa, funerary vessel with human figure, ritual container

please note: we are not experts on the subject of tribal art, we have done some limited and unprofessional research, trying to determine the age and we tried to attribute this item to a land, country, tribe, culture or people, to the best we could - do judge for yourself the tribal affilation and the correct age before buying - we are selling this item "as is" and we will not accept returns if the buyer finds that we are wrong concerning these matters.

we are: delta 98 den haag,

The Hague, The Netherlands, EU

registrated at:

Chambers of Commerce in The Netherlands / KvK Haaglanden: file 27133335