Gabonese Osseyba or Reliquary Figure, Based

A crescent above, an open diamond below, and a face made for keeping watch.

This osseyba, or reliquary figure, is Kota / Mahongwe, from Gabon in Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is brass and copper over carved wood. Kota families and lineages kept figures of this kind above baskets of ancestral relics, to guard them and to call on the ancestors for protection. Domed eyes and a small pointed nose sit on an oval face, divided into quarters of incised metal. A crescent crest and curled side lobes frame it, above a zigzag-patterned lozenge. Sixteen inches high and seven wide.

One inch deep, and it holds the room.