Royal caryatid lupona stool from the Luba people of the Congo, estimated at €15,000 at Zemanek-Münster.
Among them is a 19in (48cm) high royal caryatid lupona stool from the Luba people of the Congo. Such stools were used exclusively by the rulers of the Luba and were symbols of their power. They had a central function at the investiture of a new ruler and were also thought to contain the spirits of previous rulers.
The provenance of this stool can be traced back to Lieutenant Albert Linke who was a member of the so-called Schutztruppe, the German colonial protection force in German East Africa from May 1902 until 1909, when he returned to Germany.
His time in Africa is well documented through numerous photographs, several of which show the stool in his camp at Bismarcksburg (now: Kasanga) on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.
The estimate is €15,000.
