Object Record
Images
Metadata
Collection |
African Art Collection |
Object Name |
Comb |
Other Name |
Wooden Comb |
Catalog Number |
1976.1.18 |
Accession Number |
1976.1 |
Description |
Wooden comb with five rounded teeth that are won at the ends and two teeth have broken off. The comb's handle resembles an hourglass and faint incisions of facial features and arms crossed over the chest have been made on the comb's surface that is only visibly on one side. "Combs were often obtained as gifts from admirers or presented at marriage. Large bridal combs were prestigious and used to adorn the home. Depending on a woman's wealth or beauty, she might own three or four. "Ghanaian people frequently use proverbs in daily life to clarify anything and everything. The wide variety of abstract and naturalistic shapes found on their combs, for the most part, represented local proverbs. Combs and the carvings found on them reveal these proverbs withount the use of words. The smaller the comb is possibly an Akan Prestige Comb from Northern Ghana. Combs found in the North tended to use geographic shapes--after two centuries of Islamic influence (from Galerie Ezakwatnu)", Faces of Ghana: A Photography Exhibit by Jay L. Baker, December 2011- June 2012 |
People |
Akan |
Subjects |
Africa--Social life and customs. Africa. Carving Courting Ghana Ghana--Social conditions. Hair Hair dressing Hair ornaments Rites & ceremonies Women Wood carving Wood engravings Wood working Wood-carving--Africa--Exhibitions. |