Baule Wood Pair of Slingshots, Based

Two small heads on forked sticks, standing watch as if for a game of marbles.

This pair of slingshots was carved in wood by Baule people of the Ivory Coast, West Africa, in the 20th century. In many parts of West Africa slingshots were carried by boys and hunters, and carvers often gave the handles a decorative human head. Each handle here ends in a smooth, elongated face under a tall cap-like coiffure, above a Y-shaped fork. The wood is brown, polished and slightly crazed with use. Both are fixed on one slim black base.

About 8 inches tall. Small, wooden and faintly conspiratorial.