​Blue mangbetu pottery

Mangbetu anthropomorphic ceramics (DR Congo)

Until not so long ago, the Mangbetu nobility had the custom of compressing the heads of their children with meshes of braided raffia so that, when they grew up, they could show off exaggeratedly dolichocephalic skulls. Later, when they became adults, the young (and not so young) took pains to enhance their deformed heads with high hairstyles and cup-shaped headdresses... All so that there would be no doubt about their high social status.
That strange and exaggerated aesthetic, which the Mangbetu call lipongo, is also reflected in much of their imagery in wood, metal or ceramic, making it easily recognizable.
The anthropomorphic vessel that we offer you at Black Market presents an almost spherical container to which a girl's head with that cranial morphology is attached by two handles. Two mouths open inside: the first does so through the girl's cup headdress, while the second appears behind the vessel.

Height: 51.0 cm; Diameter: 20.5cm; Weight: 4.14 Kg