Four different combs

Four different combs
wood
carved decoration "Geometric and anthropomorphic motifs"
Angolans - Tshokwe (related peoples)
20th C. (mid)
faults and defects, patina wear
purchased: two in Luena in 1965 and 1970; one in Lumeje in 1967; and another one at Munhango in 1966
Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - (o maior) 19 cm
Notes: Provenance: Collection of Engineer Elísio Romariz dos Santos Silva, these combs correspond to items with numbers 5, 81, 82 and 83 mentioned in the notebook of the collector «Angola - Arte Negra, relação e descrição das peças». Item nº 5 is identified in this notebook as «Pente Txissaculo - pl - Issaculo», items nº 81, 82 and 83 are each identified as «Txissaculo». With regard to item number 5, it is mentioned that: "The hexagonal handle has, on the front part, engraved a face (two eyes, nose and mouth) and, contouring the sides of the polygon, two grooves; on the back part geometric drawings: two lines of small rectangles limited on the upper side by three grooves and on the lower side by four.The front side of the crosspiece is decorated with a drawing called «Caputita» or «Tupuita», often used in tattooing. Abbot Brevil interpreted it as being the schematic representation of the woman. H. Baumann, who found it in almost all the Bantus in Africa, interprets it as the man and the woman in copulation. On the back, the rectangle is divided by its diagonals and the triangles formed are decorated with grooves, some vertical and others parallel to one of the diagonals. [...] Item purchased from a Luena woman, in the sanzala of Soba Nacalunda, south side of the concentration of populations of Lumeje, on 30. Maio. 1970 [...]. Cf. Bibliography referred to by the collector: LIMA, Mesquitela de - "Tatuagens da Lunda". S/L: Museu de Angola, 1956, pp. 37-38. No. 81 is described as containing "Crosspiece decorated with incisions surmounted by a rod that has a carved head on top. [...] Purchased in Luena in 1965 [...]. The piece with no. 82 is described, containing a "Crosspiece decorated on the front side with incisions representing «Couris», surmounted by a rod with a carved head. [...] Purchased in Lumeje in 1967 [...]." No. 83 is referred to in the notebook, containing a "Crosspiece decorated with incisions, surmounted by a rod with a carved head. [...] Purchased in Munhango in 1966 [...]." "Musical instruments, combs, pipes, axes and finely crafted stools may include elaborate figurative and/or abstract motifs and belong to anyone who can afford to get them" - cf. JORDÁN, Manuel - "Os Tshokwe e Povos Aparentados". In "Na presença dos Espíritos - Arte Africana do Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisboa". Lisboa: Museu Nacional de Etnologia, 2000, pp. 92 e 114-115. "Native-made combs are still very common in the Northeast of the Province, not least because their usefulness has intensified a lot in the last few decades, due to the disuse of the old red clay headdresses, which dispensed with daily care with the hairstyle. This type of headdress also influenced the disuse of hairpins, which are now replaced by combs. The ulotric hair of Africans admirably allows for the most varied headdress fantasies, and the comb is therefore a very useful piece. It also serves as an adornment, nailed in a suitable way, in the hair. For this reason, it is common for the crosspieces on the combs to feature cute carved decorations, sometimes with openwork, sometimes surmounted by small representations of women's heads, full-length human figures, birds and other motifs. There are two types of combs: those with staff sticks held together by fibers of cajana (a kind of reed), and those made of wood, whole, with teeth carved from a spared crosspiece that serves as a base."- cf. REDINHA, José - "Album Etnográfico Portugal-Angola". Luanda: C.I.T.A, 1971, pp. 26-27. Other combs are represented in SANTOS, Soraia Ferreira (coord.) - "Herança Secular dos Povos do Sul de Angola". Lubango: Museu Regional da Huíla, 2018, p. 129, nº inv. 2004.R.25; in DIAS, Jorge (direc.) - "Escultura Africana no Museu de Etnologia do Ultramar". Lisboa: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1968, s/p, nº 157; in JORDÁN, Manuel. “Chokwe!- Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples”. Munich/London/New York: Prestel-Verlag, 1998, s/p, nº 52; in BASTIN, Marie-Louise. "La sculpture Tshokwe”. Arcueil: Alain et Françoise Chaffin, 1982, p. 242, nº 164; and in the auction catalogue held on February 1, 2023 at Lempertz "Art of Arfrica, the Pacific and the Americas". Brussels: Lempertz, 2023, lot 46.