A ceremonial hatchet

A ceremonial hatchet
wood and metals
carved decoration "Figures carrying a cage".
Angolan - Holu
20th C. (1st half)
in need of bonding resin, minor faults and defects
purchased in Loremo - Camaxilo, District of Lunda
Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 43 cm
Notes: Provenance: Collection of Engineer Elísio Romariz dos Santos Silva, item number 217, mentioned in the notebook of the collector «Angola - Arte Negra, Relação e descrição das peças», identified as «Machadinha Cerimonial» : "Offer from the Administrator of the Pungo-Andongo Post, Mr. Rogério Monteiro Pinto on March 25, 1974. It had been purchased by him[…] in Loremo - Camaxilo, District of Lunda. I had difficulty classifying this item: Camaxilo is a Tshokwe area […], but this item did not fit the style. It was suggested to me that it would be Songo. Dr. António Barros Machado solved the problem with the photographs that he presented in his Monthly Report 7/1970; the photographed item even looks the same at first glance […]. Given the […] similarity between the items I own and the one photographed, if they didn't come from the same sculptor's hand, they are certainly from the same artistic centre". It could belong to a sculptor: "The sculptor's art, 'songi' (derived from 'kusonga', to sculpt), enjoys great prestige. His emblem consists of a small ceremonial adze with a handle shaped like an ornamental human head, which he carries on his shoulder." cf. BASTIN, Marie-Louise - "Escultura Tshokwe". Porto: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 1999, p. 24. Vd. similar hatchet in FELIX, Marc Leo. - "100 Peoples of Zaire and Their Sculpture: The Handbook”. Brussels: Zaire Basin Art History Research Foundation, 1987, p. 37, nº 4. "Finely crafted musical instruments, combs, pipes, axes and stools may include elaborate figurative and/or abstract motifs and belong to whoever can afford to obtain them".  - cf. JORDÁN, Manuel - “Os Tshokwe e Povos Aparentados”. In “Na presença dos Espíritos - Arte Africana do Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisboa”. Lisboa: Museu Nacional de Etnologia, 2000, p. 114.