Tribal Art

Like their Kuba neighbors, the Lele have a wide variety of ceremonial sculptures, such as this cup used during divination rites, pacts, ritual ceremonies. This copy stands out thanks to its original design, giving it great elegance.
Beautiful glossy dark patina. Desication cracks.
The Kuba are renowned for the refinement of prestige items created for members of the high ranks of their society. Several Kuba groups indeed produced anthropomorphic objects with refined motifs including cups, drinking horns and goblets. The Lele are established in the west of the Kuba kingdom, at the confluence of the Kasai and Bashilele rivers. The intercultural exchanges between the Bushoong of the Kuba territory and the Lele have made the attribution of certain objects difficult, because the two groups use the same iconography, composed of faces with elaborate hairstyles and geometric decorative motifs.