A children's doll made with two pieces of wood that depict a mother and child wearing raffia skirts. It has black beads for earrings and contains wood burning decorations on the base. Origin West Africa.
A children's doll made with two pieces of wood that depict a mother and child wearing raffia skirts. It has yellow beads for earrings. Origin West Africa.
A clock topper, ornamental figurine that is displayed atop a mantel or shelf clock. The female figure is seated beside a quiver of arrows and holds a box of jewels. Made by the Art Metal Works Company in New York, New York.
A funerary statuette common among the Hongwe (Mahongwe), Kota (Bakota), and Fang people of Gabon. The statue is placed upon a box containing the remains of an ancestor and acts as the guardian of the reliquaries.
A glass turkey egg used to encourage turkey hens to lay eggs in a particular location. According to Mrs. Gold, to encourage a hen to lay eggs in a specific place, farmers would often begin making their nests and place the artificial nesting eggs in them with the hope that the hen would complete her nest in that location. This also helped the farmer keep track of which hens were laying eggs and where the eggs were located. The glass eggs remained in the nest until the hen laid and incubated the eggs and the offspring hatched. It was important to maintain this process and promptly remove the artificial egg so that it could be reused.
A kukri, or "Gurkha knife"; large knife has decorated ivory handle and blade, metal piece at end of the handle, pointed tip; two small knives with ivory handles; all three knives fit into plain black sheath; origin Nepal.
A minstrel stick puppet. Minstrel shows were a type of entertainment popular from the 1840s to as late as the 1960s that featured performers in blackface. Figure has movable parts connected by pins.
A multipurpose ax that was used for digging, clearing and breaking ground. According to Mrs. Gold, it was used in Mount Pleasant before saws and machines were available to clear land to plant crops. The long side was used for hewing trees or bushes and the short side for cutting tree roots.
