Ivory tusk Kongo peoples Republic of the Congo, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola 96-28-1, museum purchase

Artists from the region around the mouth of the Congo River along the Loango coast have a long tradition of carving ivory objects. This carved ivory tusk from the Kongo peoples has a dark decorative inlay and probably dates to the 19^th century when ivory carving was a craft controlled by a guildlike system. Full tusks carved in spirals, like the object under discussion, were created almost exclusively for foreign trade, and each carving took several months to complete.

Steckelmann, a 19^th-century trader, referred to the decorative inlay as n'yanga, an indigenous term for a sap used in this coastal region to mend canoes and ceramics.¹ Under magnification, the inlay appears amorphous and resinous. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum of the inlay closely resembles that of Japanese lacquer, which is made from the sap of the Rhus vernicifera tree. This analysis confirms that the sample is a natural laquer, as Steckelmann had indicated.

¹ Steckelman quoted in Sigrid Docken Mount, "African Art at the Cincinnati Art Museum" African Arts 13 (August 1980): 40«46, 80.

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