Bamenda Ceremonial Pipe - Lizard Form

Slim pipe with a small frog-like creature clinging halfway down the stem.

This terra cotta ceremonial pipe in the form of a lizard is Bamenda, from Cameroon, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. The Bamenda peoples live in the Grassfields region of northwest Cameroon, where smoking pipes in clay and brass have long been associated with chiefs, titled men and ceremonial gatherings. Dark stem with a smooth, burnished finish, widening at the bowl end into a cylindrical cup. A modeled creature with raised back sits along the stem, with ridges down its spine. The tip tapers to a plain rounded end. It is 7 inches wide, 1.5 deep and 2 high.

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