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Walter
Logan Fry collected six Ldamie figures in Liberia, during
the period 1934-35. His son, William Logan Fry, has
collected three more. The first of the new acquisitions,
Figure 009001, was purchased in February 2008 from Swiss art
collector, Paolo Morigi, after it failed to sell at a
Sotheby's Paris auction on December 6, 2005. In
personal correspondence, Mr. Morigi said he had acquired it
in situ in Nimba County, Liberia in 1962. It
depicts two acrobats, a father and son. The second, Figure
009002, was purchased at a Sotheby's NYC sale on May 13,
2011. It depicts a mother and child, and was originally
collected by Walter Wilson, a Firestone plantation employee,
before 1930. The third, figure 009003, was purchased
on July 28, 2023, after it failed to sell at the auction of
Nov 12, 2022, Auctionhouse Zemanek,
Münster, Germany. It depicts an elephant, with its tusks
pointed up.
More than six dozen comparable works by Ldamie, in museums of every nature around the world, can be viewed here, beginning
with "Ldamie Group A" (click on link below):
Ldamie Group A
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Figure 007001
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure winnowing rice; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 7 1/2 in. (19 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Figure 007002
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure carrying water; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 8 11/16 in. (22 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Figure 007003
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure with machete; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 8 in. (20.2 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Notice the leopard tooth necklace on one of the wives
in the photograph to the right. Then compare to the figure to the right (Figure 007004).
Of all the figures I've examined, now well over 150 in number, only Ldamie depicted women
wearing a leopard tooth necklace.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 007004
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure with leopard tooth
necklace; collected 1934-1935 by
Walter Logan Fry; brass (copper alloy);
7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm). collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Also notice the hairstyling of that same figure
(Figure 007004), and compare it to the hair styling
of the net fisher, positioned on the left side of the photograph,
seen immediately to the right.
Ldamie incorporated the clothing,
adornment and hair styling of his people into his sculpture.
This is one of the defining elements of his work; and when
such features are seen in an as of yet unattributed sculpture,
it is one indicia that it is the work of Ldamie.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 009002
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure carrying child; collected
1926-30 by Walter Wilson; brass (copper alloy);
7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm); collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Figure 007005
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with cane; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry;
brass (copper alloy); 7 9/16 in.
(19.1 cm). collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Figure 009001
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
acrobats; collected in 1962 by
Paolo Morigi; brass (copper alloy);
11 in. (28.5 cm). Collection of
William Logan Fry
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Father
collected the elephant tail whisk to the right. It was a
prestige item for chiefs and persons of authority. Elephant hooves were
also used for jewelry, and four examples can been see in the second
Adornment Gallery Ldamie
cast at least two elephant sculptures, one in the Fry collection, Figure 009003,
seen to the right;
and the second in the collection of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco. That object can be viewed in the
comparative galleries, as well as in Barbara Johnson's
exhibition catalog: Four Dan Sculptors: Continuity and
Change.
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Liberia, early 20th century
elephant tail, leather, braided raffia;
18 in / 21.5 in incl. strap (45.7 x 54.6 cm)
private collection of
Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 009003
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
elephant; collected early 2000s by
Dr. Christopher Steiner; brass (copper
alloy); 3 1/2 in. (9 cm); collection of
William Logan Fry
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Figure 007006
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with slit drum; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 10 11/16 in. (27.1 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Figure 007006
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with slit drum; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 10 11/16 in. (27.1 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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