| DAN - WUNKIRMIAN FEAST LADLE/SPOON Liberia and Ivory Coast |
| "Wunkirle procession" |
| Artists in Dan communities of the Guinea coast have mastered the art of carving impressive, large wooden spoons that are virtuoso works of sculpture. The spoons are known by many names, including wake mia or wunkirmian, which roughly translates as "spoon associated with feasts." The spoons range in size from a foot to two feet and have one or (rarely) two parallel bowls. The handle of the spoon is always decorated and often is related to the human form and often feature a pair of legs like this example. Among the Dan, the owner of the spoon is called wa ke de, "at feasts acting woman." It is a title of great distinction that is given to the most hospitable woman of the village. With the honor, however, comes responsibility—the wa ke de must prepare the large feast that accompanies masquerade ceremonies. The excellent farming abilities, organizational talents, and culinary skills of the wa ke de are called upon to properly welcome and celebrate the masquerade spirits. When a woman has been selected as the main hostess of such a feast, she parades through town carrying the large spoon as an emblem of her status. On the day of the feast, she dances around the village dressed in men's clothes because "only men are taken seriously." She carries with her a wunkirmian and displays a bowl filled with small coins or rice. With help from her numerous assistants (usually female relatives or friends), she distributes grains and coins to the children of the community while dancing and singing her special shrill song. The deep belly of the spoon from which this bounty is dispensed becomes the symbolic body or womb of the female figure. The event creates a profound visual analogy that honors the hostess, and women in general, as a source of food and life. In addition to being emblems of honor, wunkirmian also have spiritual power. They are a Dan woman's chief liaison with the power of the spirit world and a symbol of that connection. Among the Dan, the wunkirmian have been assigned a role among women that is comparable to that which masks serve among the men. In many instances, wunkirmian are featured in the same ceremonies with masks, tossing rice in front of them as a blessing while they proceed through the village. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art I CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE A DAN SPOON IN MY COLLECTION. |
| Feast Ladles The old woman promised me before she died that if I held the ladle in my hand, my name would become famous and the ladle would make me rich because it is so finely carved that, out of delight, the people would give me gifts.— Doa, a wunkirle (Himmelheber and Tabmen 1965,179) The wunkirmian or wake mia is a large ceremonial ladle. Its name translates literally as "spoon associated with feasts." Such ladles are carved to honor a particular woman who has distinguished herself among her fellow women by generosity and hospitality. Such a woman is known as a wunkirle, or wake de, an "at feasts acting woman"; mian or mia is the name for any large ladle (Fischer and Himmelheber 1984,123). The wunkirmian is owned by the wunkirle, who is considered the "most hospitable woman" of her village quarter. One woman in each quarter is honored with the tide of wunkirle (plural: wunkirlone or wunkade), an honor often handed down with the wunkirmian. When a wunkirle becomes old she chooses her successor from among the young women of her quarter. As the Dan are a patrilocal society, and wives usually come from other villages, she cannot pass on die ladle to her daughter, but instead chooses the woman she believes to be most generous and industrious to succeed her. Himmelheber, with Tabmen, has summarized best the duties attached to the office of wunkirle (1965). She offers hospitality to all who come to her door, nor is any group too large for her to feed. Itinerant bands of musicians and entertainers, for example, find their way to her, and she traditionally delights in feeding them. In addition, she prepares meals for the men who clear the fields at planting time, and at festivals provides hospitality to arriving strangers. In order to be able to afford this largess, she must be an industrious farmer. She must have a husband or son who will do die heavy work of clearing large fields each year, and she herself must work long and hard to plant and harvest an abundance of rice. At feast times she marches with her spoon at die head of the line of women from her quarter. Each woman carries a pot of cooked rice and soup. The wunkirle either distributes the food to the guests, or more frequently uses her ladle to indicate the distribution. At some feasts the wunkirlone of a village compete with each other in generosity by distributing small gifts of peanuts, candy, coins, and other foods. The women dance at these times. The wunkirle's prestige may be indicated by her being carried in a hammock through the village by the women of her quarter. They also contribute gifts of their own, but always in the name of their wunkirle. Guests in the village, for the sake of impartiality, decide which wunkirle is the richest and most generous, after which the masks of her village sing her praises (Himmelheber and Tabmen 1965,174). A similar tradition was described in some detail from several towns of the Dan-We border area (Kpor 1986, and Dro 1986). One woman from each town quarter is chosen as being the best cook, the strongest and hardest worker, and most willing to offer hospitality. Every year or so on the occasion of a big cow feast, a particular quarter is designated to provide the cow. That quarter is also honored by providing its candidate to be the klaywaiyno. Early in the morning of the feast, after the cow has been killed and some of the meat cooked, the chosen klaywaiyno and her two women assistants dress in short, knee-length lapas, measures of cloth wrapped and tied around the waist, and brassieres. They paint white kaolin clay lines on wrists, elbows, ankles, knees, and across the eyes. The klaywaiyno also drags rice plants behind her from a long rope tied around her waist. She carries her badge of honor, the feast ladle, called klaywaimina, which corresponds exactly in form to the Dan wunkirmian. Her two assistants carry either ceremonial wooden pestles, sometimes with a carved head on the end, representing another function of women, the pounding of rice and other foods in the mortar with the pestle. In some towns they carry only rice plants. The klaywaiyno and two assistants dance through the town, the klaywaiyno carrying her feast ladle filled with cooked rice, spread with red palm oil and cooked meat, stopping as she goes to serve small portions to the most important men. Later the portions of the cow will be distributed to be cooked and eaten by all. Among the Dan, after an old wunkirle dies, a festival usually is given to honor her and to inaugurate her successor. At this time the new wunkirle must prove herself worthy of the honor; the ladle's function is reinforced as she occasions a sizable distribution of foods and gifts to her village and guests. Besides being emblems of honor, these ladles have spiritual power. In the words of a wunkirle, Doa, the ladles contain "all the power and fame of the wunkirle." Ladles embody “du”, and it is that power that enables the wunkirle to perform her duties in such a way that will make her rich and famous. Wunkirmian are the women's chief liaison with the power of the spirit world, and the authority symbol of that connection. The Dan say, "The wunkirmian is for the women what the masks are for the men" (Him-melheber and Tabmen 1965,177). As are masks, each wunkirmian is given an individual name, e.g. Piase, "Fine face," or Mlanyor, "Lucky Woman" (interviews 1986). When a new wunkirmian is carved to replace an old one, the du must be induced to enter it, and sacrifices are made to this end. After funerals, women dance in procession behind wunkirlone with their ladles, using the spirit power to chase away ghosts of the dead (Dormer 1940, 88). Himmelheber tells of a Dan wunkirle whose ram- headed ladle had a horn broken off. According to the wunkirle, the horn was broken by fighting with another ladle in a meeting of wunkirmian spirits in the bush (Negerkunst, 1960,166). These ladles have a spiritual connection with the masks. Thus the wunkirlone, ladles in hand, often appear with the mask-wearers, tossing rice in front of them as a blessing (Himmelheber, "Sculptors," 1964, 245). When the gunlagle, the judge-mask of the village quarter, makes its appearance, all the wunkirlone of the village must participate, dance, and honor the mask by giving it gifts (Himmelheber and Tabmen 1965,175). Wunkirmian are carved in several different forms. The most common form has a handle carved in the likeness of a human head. The face is usually the oval, slit-eyed face of the deangle mask. It often has a vertical line from forehead to nose that represents tattoo markings, and a band of white kaolin frequently is painted across the eyes, representing a cosmetic practice of Dan women. The head usually has a carved hairdo, often trimmed with black-dyed plant fiber, sometimes representing hairstyles no longer seen but fashionable at one time. Decorative incisions often are made around the neck at the base of the head, and vertical lines are carved in eyebrows to represent cosmetic plucking. The neck often has incised rings, representing neck creases, which emphasize the beauty of a long neck. Apparently the face on the ladle is intended to portray a specific woman. Harley writes of a Janus-faced ladle, said to have been carved about 1860 in We country to portray a wunkirle named Ma Boa, or "What thing do I lack?". On the back of the handle was carved the portrait of her favorite helper in feast preparation, Nying Gli, "Dry your tears" (1950, 40). Himmelheber and Tabmen also wrote and amply illustrated that the face on the ladle was indeed intended as a portrait of its original owner (1965,176). A portrait in this context is a stylized one, emphasizing individual elements such as a special tattoo, scarification markings, or coiffures, yet staying within the traditional style. Another form that may be given to the handle of the wunkirmian is a pair of legs. This makes the bowl of the ladle represent the upper part of the body, presenting a wonderful abstraction of the human form. Legs on a feast ladle are said to represent the legs of all the people arriving on foot to be fed by the wunkirle (Woto Mongru 1983). Other handle forms include the human hand, said to represent the strong grip of the wunkirle (Woto Mongru 1983). Animal heads also are seen, specifically sheep, goats, or cows, either representing the sacrificial animals at a feast or perhaps a woman's dowry (Zerlee 1983). Sometimes the handle ends in a little bowl, again suggesting food, or in a number of abstract designs. Source: "Four Dan Sculptors - Continuity and Change" |
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| From the sale : A PASSION FOR COLLECTING: THE EYE OF STANLEY MARCUS LOT 19 A SUPERB DAN SPOON Ivory Coast or Liberia wakemia, of anthropomorphic form, the bent muscular legs with faceted rings encircling the ankles, the defined knees and tapering hips beneath a central faceted neck supporting the hollowed oval ladle, decorated at the reverse with incised geometric motifs mimicking those found on the bodies of Dan women; exceptionally fine, varied encrusted blackened patina. height 22 3/4in. 57.8cm PROVENANCE J. J. Klejman, New York, 1965 Cf. Fischer and Himmelheber (1984: 131} for a related standing figurative spoon. The spoon represents the spirit of generosity of the person who received it. It is brandished during the dance of the hospitable women who have been given the honor of preparing the feast, followed by her assistants (Barbier, ed. 1993: 72). This superbly rendered spoon shows signs of great age with its layered blackened surface and rounded forms. This level of sophistication as a work of great abstract sculpture is rare in African art. The suggestion of human form in the muscularity of the legs is here combined with an elegant use of repeating linear motifs to break the sensuousness of the rounded volumes. The placement of surface decoration in the manner of scarification demonstrates the highly anthropomorphic nature of the spoon. Sotheby's November 16, 2002 estimate$25,000-35,000 Sold for $50,788.00 |
| Ladle, 20th century (before 1960) Zlan of Belewale Dan peoples; Liberia or Côte d'Ivoire Wood, pigment; L. 23 in. (58.4 cm) The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.254) Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| SOTHEBY's Property from the Leaf Collection, Mexico LOT 74 - A magnificent Dan female spoon height 18 3/4 in. (47.6cm.) Estimate $70,000-90,000 SOLD for $129,000 Standing on abstract wedge-shaped feet, with muscular legs tapering to narrow hips, and rounded buttocks beneath the abstract arching torso with diminutive breasts and the back carved as an elongated ellipse with pointed ends and a raised medial ridge for the spine, leading to a hollowed elliptical ladle with two grooved vertical strips framing the raised medial ridge on the reverse, incised scarification in vertical panels on the calves, thighs, and torso; exceptionally fine and varied blackened patina. The Dan are famous for their unique large and finely sculpted wooden spoons. These large spoons have both a symbolic and practical function. The spoon serves as a messenger for social structure as the owner of the large spoon in a village is the woman who has distinguished herself both by her efficiency and her generosity. She is both responsible for the administration of the food for her extended family, and hospitable to all — family, friends and strangers. In order to reach this level the wakede is helped by a spirit, which incarnates in her large spoon, called 'the spoon spirit' (Fischer and Himmelheber, 1984:123). This seemingly utilitarian object was sculpted with as much care as fine statues among the Dan, showing similar attention to detail. 'The spoon represents the spirit of generosity of the person who received it. It is brandished during the dance of the hospitable women who has been given the honor of preparing the repast, followed by her assistants (Barbier [ed.] 1993:72).' While the use and symbolism of the Dan spoon has been well established, the level of sculptural sophistication and abstraction which the carver of this spoon has reached in the working of this superb example is almost without parallel in African art. The suggestion of a human form in the muscularity of the leg is here combined with an elegant use of hollowed spaces on the back of the torso and reverse of the spoon. In addition, the surface decoration in the form of scarification and incised notches serve to highlight the overall form. |
| Sotheby's May 2002 - Lot 60 A FINE DAN SPOON standing on wedge-shaped feet, the muscular splayed legs leading to rounded buttocks and tapering to a squared-torso supporting the large, faceted elliptical ladle, decorated at the front of the body and back of the legs and ladle with incised linear motifs imbued with kaolin; varied dark brown patina. height 21 in. PROVENANCE Pace Primitive and Ancient Art, New York Estimate $15,000-25,000 |
| African Dan Cote d'Ivoire Feast-making Spoon (Wunkirmian),n.d. wood 24 3/16 x 6 7/16 x 2 13/16 in. Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company 81.17.204 Seattle Art Museum |
| LOT 130 PROVENANT D'UNE COLLECTION PRIVÉE f - TRÈS BELLE CUILLER ANTHROPOMORPHE, DAN, CÔTE D'IVOIRE [A FINE DAN SPOON, IVORY COAST] LOCATION ESTIMATE AUCTION DATE Paris 20,000—30,000 EUR Session 1 15 Jun 04 2:30 PM Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 24,000 EUR ($31,418.40 USD) |
| Property from an American Private Collector A SUPERB DAN SPOON LOCATION ESTIMATE AUCTION DATE New York 50,000—70,000 USD Session 1 17 May 02 10:15 AM Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 65,725 USD height 20 3/4in. (52.7cm.) wakemia, of anthropomorphic form, the wedge-shaped feet with ankles encircled by copper rings beneath muscular legs with defined kneecaps and rounded hips and buttocks beneath a central ornately carved neck with raised repeating ridges supporting the elegantly shaped oval ladle with raised medial ridge on the reverse and deeply incised scarification markings mimicking those found of the bodies of Dan women; exceptionally fine and varied encrusted blackened patina overall. Cf. Fischer and Himmelheber (1984:131) for a related spoon standing on legs. This exceptional spoon, a seemingly utilitarian object, was sculpted with as much care as the finest figurative statues amongst the Dan, showing similar attention to detail. 'The spoon represents the spirit of generosity of the person who received it. It is brandished during the dance of the hospitable women who has been given th honor of preparing the feast, followed by her assistants (Barbier (ed.) 1993:72)' This superbly rendered spoon shows signs of great age with its layered blackened surface and roundedness of forms. This level of sophistication as a work of great abstract sculpture is rare in African art. The suggestion of human form in the muscularity of the legs is here combined with an elegant use of repeating linear form to break the sensuousness of the rounded volumes. The placement of surface decoration highlights the very anthropomorphic nature of the spoon. |
| Superb Anthropomorphic Dan Spoon GALLERY: Merton D. Simpson Gallery, Inc. MATERIALS: Wood and metal SIZE: h: 17.5 in / h: 44.4 cm REGION: Ivory Coast |
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