Bamileke Bronze Figural Pipe, Based

Faces stacked on faces, and a figure seated in the middle of the crowd.

Bamileke artists of Cameroon, Central Africa, cast this figural pipe in bronze in the 20th century. Pipes of this kind from the Grassfields are commonly linked with status and display among men of rank. Small heads cluster around the rim of the bowl, a seated figure sits on the stem, and a grimacing face with bared teeth fills the swollen base. The metal has settled to a dark, mottled green-brown, and the whole piece stands on a black mount.

About eight inches tall. Too sculptural to smoke, too good-humored to ignore.