A Senufo Heddle Pulley, "kwora-ti-kotolo" Lot n° 10

Pulley train, "kwora-ti-kotolo" Senufo, Côte d'Ivoire Mit Sockel / with base wood. H 15,5 cm. Provenance: - Gérald and Muriel Minkoff (1937-2009 & 1948-2020), Geneva. - HDV Piguet, Geneva (21.09.2022). Published: Till Förster & Lorenz Homberger (1988). Senufo art from Swiss collections. Zurich: Museum Rietberg. Page 111, #107. Issued: Museum Rietberg: the art of the Senufo from Swiss collections. 28.05.-02.10.1988. Surrounding oneself with charming objects has always been an essential concern of all peoples. The pursuit of beauty is expressed, among other things, in the shaping of artistically designed everyday objects. The creative will to create perfect solutions in the fusion of technical-practical and formal-aesthetic functions (today called design) has produced amazingly fascinating solutions over the generations. The pulley (called e.g. "kwora-ti-kotolo" or also "kpèrè-ti-fédyèn" according to the more than 15 Senufo languages) is part of the narrow band loom. It served to anchor the roller, through the middle groove of which ran the connecting cord of two so-called heald rods, with the help of which the warp threads could be raised and lowered. Depicted is a "sejen" (= bird) which refers back to the original myth of origin of the Senufo, according to which five totem animals stood at the beginning of creation (bird, turtle, chameleon, crocodile and snake). The bird representation, embodied in the central Senufo area the authority and power of the poro covenant based on age classes, a community of initiates that determined the cultic existence of the Senufo and thus exercised the social and political control of the community. In addition to its watch function, the bird (as in countless other cultures) connected this world and the next. Further reading: Schaedler, Karl-Ferdinand (1987). Weaving in Africa south of the Sahara. Munich: Panterra Verlag CHF 2 000 / 3 000 EUR 2 000 / 3 000