Diviner's Tapper, Iroke Ifa

Public Domain

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Artist Unknown African

CultureYoruba peoples, Owo group

Titles

Diviner's Tapper, Iroke Ifa

Date18th century

PlaceNigeria, Africa

MediumIvory with dark wood inlay

Dimensions12 3/8 × 1 1/4 × 3 in. (31.4 × 3.2 × 7.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Frank Carroll in memory of Clytie Allen

Object number2016.106

Not on view

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Department

African Art

Object Type

TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS & WEIGHTS

ProvenanceBryce Holcombe, New York, until d. 1983; Estate of Bryce Holcombe, 1984; purchased by [Pace Primitive, New York]; purchased by private collection; purchased by [Merton Simpson Gallery, New York]; puchased by Victor Teicher, Westport, CT, 2000–2007; purchased by [Pace Primitive, New York, 2007]; purchased by [Donald Morris Gallery, Birmingham, MI, and New York, 2007–2008]; purchased by Frank Carroll, Houston, January 14, 2008–2016; given to MFAH, 2016.

Exhibition History- Yoruba: Sculpture of West Africa, Pace Primitive Gallery, New York, February 20–March 20, 1982.
- African Ivories, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 26–November 30, 1984.
- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 28, 2007–present.
Published References - William Fagg and John Pemberton, Yoruba: Sculpture of West Africa (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 190-191. - Kate Ezra, African Ivories (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984), fig.22, cat.no.32. - Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 245, fig.625. - Jacques Kerchache, Jean-Louis Paudrat, and Lucien Stéphan, Art of Africa, trans. Marjolijn de Jager (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993), 532, fig.909. - John Pemberton, Insight and Artistry in African Divination (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 2000), title page and 189. - Florence Carrie, “Victor Teicher: Harmonious Passion,” Art Tribal (Winter 2003).

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