Fang Brass Finial, Gabon, Based

A long brass face, unsmiling, with two small studs for eyes.

This finial, on a base, is Fang, from Gabon in Central Africa, 20th century, in wood and brass. Fang carvers are best known for heads and figures that guarded bark containers of ancestral relics, keeping the family's dead present and protected, though the use of each carved form varies. The domed head and narrow neck wear a skin of worn, scored brass. A heavy brow runs into a long nose above protruding pursed lips. Below, the dark wood shaft is bare, pierced by a round hole with a cord passing through it. It stands 17 inches high.

It keeps watch without any visible effort.