Three polychrome anthropomorphic sculptures in wood,

This group comprises three polychrome anthropomorphic wooden sculptures from the same former French private collection. According to information gathered at the time of their acquisition, they were brought back from Africa by a family who lived on the continent between 1940 and 1965. In the absence of original documentation, their study relies primarily on stylistic, technical, and comparative analysis.
The three works share a particularly remarkable set of common characteristics: single-piece construction, comparable assembly systems, articulated arms or arms attached using the same technique, early polychromy combining white kaolin with red, yellow, and black pigments, and a very similar treatment of faces, hands, proportions, and volumes. The accumulation of these consistent features suggests the possibility that they may have come from the same workshop, or even been executed by the same sculptor. While this hypothesis cannot be definitively confirmed with our current knowledge, it now forms the guiding thread of the ongoing study and fully justifies presenting these works as a coherent group rather than as three isolated sculptures, hence the reason for selling them together rather than separately.
Initial comparisons point towards the sculptural traditions of Ivory Coast, with possible parallels to the Gouro, Yaouré, or Wan corpora, although a definitive attribution cannot be established at this stage. The third figure, remarkable for its tall headdress adorned with a crescent surmounted by a radiating disc, further enhances the uniqueness of this group and could reflect an iconographic vocabulary specific to a regional workshop that is currently poorly documented. Based on stylistic and technical criteria, a dating between the 1930s and 1960s appears to be the most plausible hypothesis. This proposal, of course, remains open to refinement in light of further research or comparisons with works held in public collections. The first statue (the man) is 38 cm high, 15 cm wide, and 20 cm deep, weighing a mere 780 grams. The second statue (the woman) clearly comes from the same workshop. It weighs 750 grams, is 40 cm high, 16 cm wide, and 16 cm deep, and differs significantly from the man's: the arm is attached to the body with two nails instead of a single tenon, and the hairstyle is different and lacks a pierced crown. The third statue (the woman) is 39 cm high and weighs a very light 610 grams.

The set is asking price: €5,000.
More photos are available.

Ref: AU28AVNMRW