Mangbetu Slit Drum nedundu

Mangbetu peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Circa 1900

Height: 39 cm – Width: 82.5 cm – Depth: 14 cm

Wood

This Mangbetu ritual drum owes its seductive harmony to its marriage of symetrical design with superb patina, while its gently bellied form suggests the softness of a female abdomen. Mangbetu drums were both communication tools that can carry for several kilometres and objects of chiefly prestige.

Provenance

Bernheimer Gallery, Cambridge, MA
Bertram and Ruth Malenka, Boston, MA (acquired from the above in 1966)
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
Bonhams New York, 13 May 2019, Lot 72

Publication(s)

Monni Adams, Designs for Living: Symbolic Communication in African Art, Cambridge, MA, 1982, p. 139, Cat. 98

Exhibition(s)

2 November – 20 December 1982, Cambridge, MA, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Designs for Living – Symbolic Communication in African Art