figure (art)

A Fon sculpture; twenty brass figures set in a transportation scene. Figure one, female, holding a large bell in left hand and brass stick in right hand. Figure two, male, holding a torch-like object aloft in right hand. Figure three, male, playing bongo drum suspended from wire around neck. Figure four, female, is holding a large, shallow, oval dish. Figure five, female, is holding a long wooden pole on her head with raised right hand which is similarly held aloft by raised left hand of figure thirteen, female, from which is meant to be suspended a hammock-like object on which is seated figure eight, male. Figure six, female, is balancing a large pot on her head with her raised left hand. Figure seven, female, is holding aloft a large, open parasol. Figure nine, male is holding aloft a smaller, open parasol. Figure ten, female, is balancing a carved, wooden trunk on her head, with her left hand. Figure eleven, female, is balancing a covered pot on her head with her raised left hand. Figure twelve, male, is holding a rifle upright in his right hand and balancing a dead goat-like animal on his head. Figure fourteen, male, is bent over at the waist rolling a carved, wooden barrel along the ground. Figure fifteen, male, is balancing a wooden barrel on his head with his raised right hand. Figure sixteen, female, is holding a coiling cobra in her extended arms, left hand is unrealistically sculpted. Figure seventeen, female, is balancing a large tray and basket on her head with her raised left hand. Figure eighteen, female, is holding a stick aloft in her raised right hand. Figure nineteen, female, is balancing a carved, wooden trunk on her head with her raised right hand and is holding figure twenty, a child, in her left arm. Figures six and nineteen both have suspended orange glass bead earrings. Attached by screws to rectangular wooden base with red painted feet. Originally made by Brass Casters' Guild in Benin Republic, purchased from junk shop in England.