African Folk Art Carvings, ca. 1960
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GUEST:
My father was a professor at UCLA in California, and he was in an exchange program with the University of Nigeria. And we moved to Africa. And my mother actually had some of these carved for her. Some of the men were already carved, but they didn't carve the women, and she asked for them to make her especially some women.
APPRAISER:
Many people think of Africa in terms of masks and tribal sculptures that are made actually for tribal use. But once colonialism started in Africa, a market was created for these wonderful carvers to carve other things, specifically in the 1930s. There was an artist by the name of Akeredolu. He was carving in Yorubaland in Nigeria, and he was sort of the father of what we call the thorn carvings. And this is the style of the thorn carvings. We can see that they're very, very meticulously done. This, for example, depicts an individual who is tapping a palm tree for palm wine, and it's just a wonderful depiction of village life in Africa, which you experienced during your travels there.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Now this is not the fine art market, but this is the decorative market, folk art, and folk art is getting to be very hot.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
And so if you look at them as individual pieces, one here, one there, it might not bring as much, but as a collection with the wonderful heritage that you have, the background on it, this group is worth $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST:
You're kidding.
APPRAISER:
Nope.
GUEST:
Wow! That is wonderful.
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