Knife Case and Lid, between 16th and 18th century

  • Kongo, African

Ivory

  • Overall: 10 × 4 1/4 × 4 3/8 inches (25.4 × 10.8 × 11.1 cm)

City of Detroit Purchase

25.183

On View

  • African, Level 1, North
  • African, Level 1, North

Department

African Art

When Portuguese sailors arrived on the African coast for trading purposes, some commissioned ivory pieces to present as gifts to the nobility in Europe. This knife case was probably produced for such a gift as it combines African style with European form. The top displays four European men carved in high relief. Two hold daggers across their chests; the others clasp their hands in prayer. The surface is ornamented with a delicate interlaced design that may relate to the woven patterns used in Kongo textiles and baskets.

(C. and E. Galleria Canessa)

1925-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Guidi Sale. Sales cat., San Giorgi's. Rome, April 21-27, 1902, cat. no. 10. Fagg, W. and M. Plass. African Sculpture, An Anthology. London, 1964, p. 118 (ill.). Spirits and Ancestors. Yound People's Series no. 1. DIA, 1970, p. 11 (ill.). Kan, M. Detroit Collects African Art. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, April 21-May 29, 1977, cat. no. 137, (fig. 75). African Masterworks In The Detroit Institute of Arts. Washington and London: The Detroit Institute of Arts and Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, cat. no. 56. Levenson, J. A., ed. Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Washington D.C., 2007, p. 176 (fig. A-32).

Kongo, African, Knife Case and Lid, between 16th and 18th century, ivory. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 25.183.