Mossi Biiga Doll, Boulsa Style Carved Wood Fertility Figure, Burkina Faso

West Africa, Burkina Faso, Mossi. A carved wood Mossi biiga doll in the Boulsa style, depicting an abstracted female figure. The head has a crest running from forehead to nape, with a notched edge and close parallel grooves representing braids. The sides of the head are carved with a crosshatched grid that extends down to a straight jawline. The face is narrow, with small eyes and incised lines along the cheeks. A long neck with an incised ring rises from a squared torso with pointed breasts and incised geometric lines. The body tapers to a flared cylindrical base. Dolls of this type served as children’s playthings and as aids to conception. The figure is mounted on a round black stand. Among the Mossi of Burkina Faso, a biiga (plural biise; the word means "child") was usually given to a young girl, who carried it on her back and copied her mother's care of an infant, bathing, feeding, and dressing it. Later, a young married woman might carry the doll as she hoped for pregnancy, and some accounts say a woman would treat it as a real child and keep it until her own first baby was born. Use like this gives older examples their smooth, handled surface. The figure is boiled down to a head with a coiffure, breasts, and a cylindrical body. The crest stands for the hairstyle of a young woman of marriageable age, and the incised lines echo body scarification. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 203913

Estimate:$400

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