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  French Early 19th Century Heraldic Damascene iron and gold ring, c. 1800

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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″

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  Tim Liddy Oy Vey (1979) The game where you become a JEWISH MOTHER! Get your sons to become doctors—Get your daughters married to doctors! If not, OY VEY! 2008 Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back

  TIM LIDDY

  “Oy Vey” (1979) The game where you become a JEWISH MOTHER! Get your sons to become doctors—Get your daughters married to doctors! If not, OY VEY! 2008

  Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back

  Signed in script: Tim Liddy, red circular ring, “circa 1979”, 2008

  Provenance: William Shearburn Gallery, St. Louis, MO

  H: 10 ¼” x W: 20 ½” x D: 1 ¾”

  With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.

   

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  Dong or Meow People / Spiral silver counterweight 20th Century

  DONG OR MEOW PEOPLE Southern China

  Spiral counterweight  early 20th century

  Handwrought silver (Dutch coin silver) with custom stand

  H: 10 ¼” x W: 5 1/4” x D: 2 ¾” (dimensions on stand)

  These beautifully dynamic spiral objects were worn on the back to support a ceremonial apron worn across the front.