Page 19 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

13 ● (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—SLAVE CULTURE.) Antique American
burl bowl, incised with African designs along the lip. Burl bowl, possibly pecan, 16
inches in diameter; wide (11⁄8 inch) lip with repeating African design; two old metal
“patches”, lovely old patina.
Mississippi, circa late 18th, early 19th century [7,500/10,000]
A rare old American wood burl bowl with repeated West African “Adinkra” symbols incised
along the bowl’s lip. Adinkra are visual symbols, originally created by the Akan of Nigeria and
the Gyaman of Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa, that represent concepts or aphorisms. The designs
on this bowl most resemble the Adinkra symbols “Fawohodie,” signifying independence or free-
dom and “Fihankra,” (house or compound) signifying security and safety. Similar designs can
be seen in Clementine M. Faik-Nzuji’s book Tracing Memory, a Glosary of Graphic Signs
and Symbols in African Art and Culture (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1996).
Adinkra symbols can be found on many of the objects of material culture of West Africa, from
fabrics and pottery even to the complex designs of ritual scarification. The influence of African
design in general can be found in the material culture of the Southern United States of the
18th and 19th centuries and is well documented in John Michael Vlach’s Afro-American
Tradition in Decorative Arts (Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978). Provenance: private collector
to the consignor, obtained from the now defunct Slave Relic museum in South Carolina.
Obtained by the museum from a Mississippi plantation.
(detail)