CLASSIC AND CHARMING OLD HAND-CARVED CALABASH FROM NIGERIA

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CLASSIC AND CHARMING OLD HAND-CARVED CALABASH FROM NIGERIA:
$15.00

Gourd carving is an exclusive preserve of men of the Nigerian Yoruba tribe. It is practiced in Ogbomoso, Iwo, Ede, Osogbo, Ibadan, Ilorin, Oyo, and Lagos. Oyo is the major center.The origin of this art predates the fourteenth century.

Carving is employed in two ways. In the first, the cuticle is simply scraped to a shallow depth leaving either the pattern or the background standing as relief. They are sometimes colored with green, red, brown, blue or black enamel paint. In the second, the motifs are carved with negative spaces around them. The Yoruba carvers have always seen their efforts as an artistic process. This is the reason for their concern with design arrangement and their painstaking attention to detail. Each carver is confronted at different times with a peculiar shaped gourd, which demands creatively in design. The Yoruba gourd carving motifs are influenced by Environmental, historical, social and economic experiences of the culture.

There are two of these pretty carved calabashes, obtained in the 1970s when we lived in Lagos. (If both are going to the same buyer, the shipping cost will be sharply reduced, of course.) They would be very nice to hang on the wall, as we have done with some, or perfect for displaying fruit on the dining room table, for example. This one is about 12 inches in diameter and about 2 1/2 inches deep .