Afro-Portuguese Saltcellar

This impressive saltcellar is related to several hundred late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century precious ivories-a group which also includes spoons, forks, dagger handles, and horns or trumpets- that were produced by Sapi carvers from Sierra Leone.

Oberlin's saltcellar features stylized swirling decoration throughout, with relief carvings of European men with bare feet and torso scarification in an alternating pattern with dogs. The dogs snarl and strain toward hissing snakes hanging from above. Similar combinations of figures and animals appear in a number of other Sapi- Portuguese saltcellars. The cylindrical cup and lid, which closely resemble the form of European Renaissance cups, are surmounted by a finial figure of a kneeling mother and child, portions of which have been restored by a later hand.

Five or more workshops operated along the Sierra Leone Estuary, including the Floral Workshop and the so-called Foliage Master, a talented carver who has been identified as producing the Oberlin saltcellar. Based on this identification, two other saltcellars-one in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and another at the British Museum, London-are attributed to the same hand from close stylistic comparisons.

During the 1950s, noted African art dealer Gustave Schindler gave the AMAM a small group of works of very high quality, including the saltcellar and a large wooden Baga dance mask representing the goddess Nimba. Schindler's outstanding gifts still form the core of the museum's African holdings today.