Ceremonial rice bowl

Thanksgiving and other holiday feasts are occasions to adorn the dinner table with the hostess's best serving dishes and platters. Before the introduction of enamel wares, housewives among the Dan, We, Grebo, and neighboring peoples in Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire displayed their large, highly prized wooden bowls before filling them with rice.(34)

Wooden serving bowls typically have a flat, narrow foot and straight or slightly flared walls. The outer wall of this bowl is decorated with incised diagonal lines arranged in separate or double rows that alternate with smooth, plain areas. The designs are symmetrical but differ from one side of the bowl to the other. When in use, the bowls were highly polished.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 91, pp. 242-243.

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NOTES:

34. Fischer, Eberhard, and Hans Himmelheber. The Arts of the Dan in West Africa. Zurich: Museum Rietberg, 1984. p. 135.