Metal

Brass worn smooth by hands at a household shrine. Bronze, brass and iron figurative sculpture here ranges from Dogon and Benin Kingdom castings to Hindu and Buddhist figures from India, Nepal, Tibet and Thailand. Indian brass pilgrimage figures of Kali, Krishna, Vishnu, Durga and Shiva, many from the 17th and 18th centuries, were small enough to carry home from a temple. Edo commemorative heads and royal leopards from Nigeria follow the bronze casting tradition of the Benin court.

Fang Bwiti figures from Cameroon, Fon fertility figures from Togo, Kulango and Chamba figures, and Dogon stargazers stand near a gilded Tibetan Mahakala, a Nepalese Chenrezig in silvered copper and an 18th century Thai bronze Buddha. From Japan come mid-century cast iron animals; from the Netherlands, bronze birds and a striding bull; from the sculptor Itzik Benshalom, an abstract embracing couple. Set a bronze on a stone-topped side table, where the patina can catch lamplight. Metal remembers every hand that touched it.