Vere coinage, Northwest Nigeria - Lot 72

Lot n° 72
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Estimation :
450 - 500 EUR
Vere coinage, Northwest Nigeria - Lot 72
Vere coinage, Northwest Nigeria Late 19th - early 20th century Wrought iron H. 170 cm Bibliography : Berns Marla, Joyce Tom, Allen F. Roberts, Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths, Fowler Museum At UCLA, 2019. Ronnberg Ami, Martin Kathleen, The Book of Symbols. Reflections on archetypal images, Taschen, 2011, 807 pages. Impressive in their constantly renewed forms, the carved coins of sub-Saharan Africa illustrate both the talent of the blacksmiths and their ingenuity of design. The impressive size and remarkable design of this forged coin testify to the important aesthetic and material value that Vere societies attributed to it. Atop a long, straight, cylindrical stem, a bouquet-shaped sculpture unfolds in a beautiful alternation of blades, some in the shape of shovels, others in the form of ornamental elements whose ends are carved with a double spiral motif. References to the agricultural domain are frequent in the iconography, since when used as wedding dowries, these "material praises" evoked the labor, harvest and generosity of the bride-to-be. As for the double spiral, it is of course of decorative interest, but we can also detect a symbolic depth in it, as an allegory of duality and balance in the world, representing "the eye of wisdom that observes everything but never lets itself be carried away by agitation."
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