An important discovery in the corpus of Chokwe art, this beautiful stool has never been published or exhibited before. The delicate facial details of this single-block stool are exceptionally refined and expressive, while its pensive posture gives it a most universal appeal. Carved by a songi or master court sculptor, this stool once expressed the power and prestige of its Chokwe owner. The function of such a stool was not so much that of an elaborate piece of furniture or status symbol, but rather that of an insignia of authority advocating order and speaking of supreme political and spiritual power. When referring to a carved stool that belonged to a chief, headman or important elder, the Chokwe term ngunja (‘throne’) was used to express proper respect for the influential rank of its owner. The figure of the female caryatid carved in the stool symbolically supports the king, metaphorical protecting his authority. Also literally bearing the chief, this female ancestor underlines her support to his political power.

A Chokwe stool sculpted by the same artist is held by the Belgian Royal Museum for Central Africa (EO.1948.40.29). Its facial features are rendered in a most similar manner, as is the posture of its body – just as a second stool from this hand which was offered for sale at Sotheby Parke Bernet in New York on 6 March 1980 (lot 141). An identical ‘wave-shaped’ scarification pattern can be found on its left hip, while copper bracelets also decorate the wrists. A stool once owned by the French artist Arman (1928-2005), published in “African Faces, African Figures. The Arman Collection” (New York, The Museum of African Art, 1997, no. 155) also can be attributed to this anonymous Chokwe artist. A similar vertical zig-zag scarification line is sculpted under the eyes, and the feet are sculpted in an identical blocky rectangular manner. Four other seated Chowke stools of this type, yet possibly from different artists can be cited. One, previous in the collection of Max Fleisher, published in “African Art in American Collections”, Washington, 1989, p. 394, #1003), a second in the Dartevelle Collection (published in Neyt (François), “Fleuve Congo. Arts d’Afrique centrale”, Paris, Musée du quai Branly, 2010, p. 353, #237); and a third, since 1927 in the collection of the Bernisches Historisches Museum in Switzerland (CO.659), published in “African Seats”, New York, Prestel, 1995, p. 148 & 184, #106. The latter displays very similar scarfication patterns on the body, and an equally refined coiffure; it shows how copper alloy earrings must also once have decorated the present stool. More naturalistic but also displaying a female caryatid is an example in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1978.412.545), the lower and upper rim decorated with imported brass tacks, sparsely applied to the back of the coiffure of the present - the use of the metal was the prerogative of Chokwe royalty. This beautiful stool must once have been an important source of prestige to its owner and remains a testament of the outstanding craftsmanship of Angola’s Chokwe sculptors.