COUPLES

Those objects that have been vetted as authentic by outside experts (Christophe Rolley, Edith Mbella, Daniel Mato, Rand Ningali, Phil Warish and Ethan Rider) are labelled as such. Objects made for the market are labelled accordingly, and objects in our archives or on pages no longer on our website should be assumed to be inauthentic if not otherwise labelled.

BAKONGO Staffs 1&2

DOGON Couples

EWE Couples

BAULE Couples

LUBA Headrests Catalog

LOBI Couples

HEMBA Couples

LUBA Couple Stools

FON Couple 4

The couples below have been sold and are left here for reference and educational purposes.

MOSSI Dolls 14-15 SOLD

GAN Couple 1 SOLD

TIKAR Couple 1 SOLD

MATACOM Couple 1 SOLD

BAMANA Chi-wara SOLD

DOGON Metal Couples SOLD

FON Couples SOLD

PENDE Couple 1 SOLD

FANG Couple 1 SOLD

BAMANA Couple 1 SOLD

AJA Figures SOLD

NYAMWEZI Couple 16 SOLD

DOGON Doors SOLD

BAULE Doors SOLD

ORON Couple 2 SOLD

 

PENDE Couple 1 SOLD

FANG Couple 1 SOLD

BAMANA Couple 1 SOLD

IGBO Couple 1 SOLD

DOGON Stools SOLD

DOGON Granary Doors SOLD

VARIOUS Metal Couples SOLD

MUMUYE Couple 72 SOLD

PERE Couples SOLD

LUBA Offering Bowls SOLD

Photographs © Hamill Gallery

Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, figures like these were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies. Traditionally, most of the couples are two freestanding figures, conceived as a unit, and posed frontally, symmetrically, in formal postures and of equal size.

Sculpted as stools and headrests, the male and female figures serve as symbolic supports, or as handles when worked into the design of bowls. Couples also appear as decorative elements on African doors.