Bambara Bronze Antelope Figure

Long-horned little animal with a stiff stance and a blue-green crust.

This bronze antelope figure from the Bambara is Bambara, from Mali, West Africa, and dates to the early 20th century. Small bronze figures in West Africa are generally made by lost-wax casting, in which a wax model is covered in clay, melted out and replaced with molten metal. Slender four-legged form with long backward-sweeping horns and a pointed muzzle. Thin legs end in simple feet. The surface is mottled turquoise and grey-green with brown patches and a rough, pitted texture. It is 5 inches wide, 1.75 deep and 3.5 high.

Stiff-legged, flat-footed and bursting with attitude.