Poupée Bagirmi Tchad

sothebys says in 2012 june :"The Baguirmi fertility dolls are a very limited corpus of statuettes from a region south of Lake Chad. About fifteen examples are known, and were the subject of a study by Pierre Harter published in Tribal Arts magazine in Winter 1994.
These statuettes can be recognized by their tripartite shape, the head in the form of a half-sphere, and for the most part a flaring cone-shaped lower body.

These dolls were used during fertility rites presided over by the village chiefs. The body was probably wrapped in cloth or pieces of leather, and they were worn by young girls, as are the namji dolls in Cameroon. After use, the statuette is then abandoned.

These statuettes differ somewhat in size - the largest being over 22 cm - but all have fine engraved decorations and often holes or nails in the head to hold small pendants, a feature common to Ashanti akwaba statuettes.
ex french collection 
ahdrc under number 0215661