FRANCE/MALI, Les Dogon, 1972, a bronze medal by M. Rossigneux, on an attic door with a carved pivot, between a double row of rafters evoking water, three ancestors protect the primordial ancestors of the Dogon people, rev. a traditional wooden mask stands proud against the woven pattern of a blanket of the dead, symbolic of the cultivated land, edge impressed 1972 cuivre and cornucopia, 77mm, 340.65g (Ruedas p.360, 55; CGMP p.1619). Very fine, dark patina £25-£35

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Silich Collection of Historical and Art Medals.

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bt Simmons, January 2005

The Dogon are an ethnic group indigenous to the central plateau region of Mali, near the city of Bandiagara, and in neighbouring Burkina Faso. The population numbers in excess of 600,000 and Dogon languages, considered to constitute an independent branch of the Niger-Congo language family, are spoken. The Dogon are best known for their religious traditions, their mask dances, wooden sculpture which veers towards Cubism, and their architecture.