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  Egide Rombaux (attr.) Belgian Art Nouveau “Nymph and Iris” sculpture c.1900

  EGIDE ROMBAUX  attr. (1865-1942)  Belgium

  Nymph with Iris Blossoms  c.1900

  Finely hand carved ivory in the form of a full figure nymph with an iris blossom and buds, blue agate base with gilt bronze mounts

  For more information see: Art Nouveau and Art Deco Lighting, Alastair Duncan (New York: Simon & Schuster, Publishers, 1978)

  H: 9 1/2″

  Price: 9,750

  Egide Rombaux, born 1865 in Brussels, was the son of the sculptor Félix Rombaux and student of Charles van der Strappen and Joseph Lambeaux.  Rombaux was one of the more eminent of the Belgian School at the turn of the century; he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1891, and subsequently became a professor at the Institut superieur des Beaux-Arts in Anvers.  Sculptor and medalist, he principally did ivory groups (such as his ‘Venusberg’, displayed at the 1897 chryselephantine Tervuren exposition, and his ‘Daughter of Satan’, now at the Musée Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels), portrait busts and statues.  He also collaborated with silversmith Franz Hoosemans on a delightful range of candelabra and tablelamps.

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  Benin Bronze Head of King Oba, African, Nigeria 20th Century

  NIGERIA

  Benin Head of King Oba,  c. early to mid-20th Century

  Lost wax cast bronze with a rich brown and black patina with light desert sand patina in some of the recessed areas.

  The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, and is meant to symbolize and to extol the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions. From the 14th century until its fall in 1897, Benin was ruled by the Oba, a divine ruler at the head of the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsman’s guilds produced bronze, brass, and wood sculptures and embroidered cloth, all of which have become prized by museums and collectors.

  These heads were typically placed on altars dedicated to each of the past Oba’s of Benin. The altars are semicircular mud platforms that have been packed hard and rubbed smooth and are located in open courtyards of the palace. The royal altars are the settings for one of the two most important rites of divine kingship in Benin, Ugie Erha Oba, when the Oba honors the spirit of his late father and performs sacrifices to the royal ancestors and to the earth in which they are buried. Acknowledging his role as his fathers’ successor, the chiefs pay homage to the king and greet him in order of seniority. The rite expresses the continuity of divine kingship, and the altar before which it takes place provides the means by which the connection between the living king and his predecessors was established and made.

  H: 14 1/2″ x D: 7 1/2″ x W: 8 1/2″