Kota Osseyba or Reliquary Figure, Based

Gabon. A box of ancestral relics, and a figure on top to keep watch.

This is an osseyba, a reliquary figure, made in the 20th century and sheathed in brass and copper over wood. The face is a broad oval covered in fine strips of metal radiating from the center, with a raised band forming an inverted V across the brow. Two domed brass eyes sit above a narrow vertical nose strip, and a cylindrical crest rises from the top. The neck is wrapped in coppery wire above an open, diamond-shaped base incised with chevrons.

The metal has a warm, mellowed patina. Twenty-two inches of guardian. Look it in the eye first.