African Bronze Standing Figure

The lost-wax method asks a lot of its smith. This figure is evidence that one met it.

Across West Africa such miniatures were kept in households or on shrines as personal objects of protection and remembrance. This is a slender male, bronze, 20th century, standing seven inches tall. Straight legs. Arms falling along the body, hands meeting low on the abdomen. A thick ring encircles the neck, the head rises to a small crest, and the face is long and narrow with a sharp nose. Fine incised hatching marks the chest. The patina is nearly black, lighter where worn, with a small casting flaw on one thigh.

The flaw stays. It is in the grain of the story.