Harp Resonator with a Finial in the Shape of a Female Head

late 19th century

African Art

On view, 1st floor, African Art

The shape of this sound box, or resonator, has been compared to a ship, with an elongated keel, prow, rudder, and figurehead. Only nine extant examples of this kind are recorded, all of which are believed to have come from Sierra Leone before 1900. The elaborate coiffure, ringed neck, and facial features of the finial conform to the ideals of female beauty expressed by Mende culture. Harps with vertical bridges, or string holders, are found throughout West Africa; the best known and most elaborate of these is the kora, or twenty-one-string Maninkaharp, principally played by the griots (praise singers) of Senegambia and Mali. These are plucked, either with the fingers or with a plectrum.

Medium

Wood, hide, and metal

Dimensions

19 1/2 × 5 11/16 × 4 5/16 in. (49.5 × 14.5 × 11 cm)

Credit Line

Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection

Accession Number

2006.51.351

Geography

Liberia, or Guinea Coast, Sierra Leone

Culture

Mende

Period

19th–20th century

Classification

Musical Instruments

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
William Downing Webster, England to March 4, 1898 or George Fabian Lawrence, England to March 4, 1898; Lt.-Gen. Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers, Farnam, Dorset, England, from March 4, 1898. Possibly sold at Sotheby's London on November 15, 1965. Charles B. Benenson Collection, donated to Yale University Art Gallery in 2004
Bibliography
  • Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 229, ill
  • "Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," in "Photography at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 222
  • Marie-Thérèse Brincard, Sounding Forms: African Musical Instruments (New York: American Federation of Arts, 1989), fig. 12
  • Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 558, fig. 1534
  • Susan Vogel, African Sculpture: The Shape of Surprise, exh. cat. (Greenvale, N.Y.: C. W. Post Gallery, 1980), no. 120
Object copyright
Copyright Undetermined
Additional information

Object/Work type

harps (chordophones)

Subject

heads (representations) women

Technical metadata and APIs

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