Malagasy Sakalave Post, Breton Collection.

This post comes from a Breton collector friend, a doctor in geography who made photographic reports for the magazine "photo" and "geo" in Madagascar and brought back a collection of posts, his name will be revealed to the buyer on the certificate, he also participated in the reference work of Mr. Bertrand Goy, on this subject. On the last photo a similar post in situation in the 50s/60s. I specify that I sell it without commission, here is what he told me: This post (Aloalo) Mahafaly comes from the region of Tuléar (Great South). Estimated age: mid-20th century, or even earlier. The many small characters evoke the deceased person and significant episodes of his life and personality: Dangerous animals (snake, crocodile), hunting (guinea fowl), theft of zebus (pursuit by the gendarmes), women and children... It is a sort of "book of life" inscribed in camphor wood, very resistant to erosion. The appearance and use of concrete then modified the construction of traditional tombs which thus lost their carved wooden statuary in the 1960s. This type of post with four trays and numerous characters is the rarest type of Mahafaly funerary posts. It is part of an important collection which was to be included in an exhibition on the funerary art of Madagascar at the Quai Branly in 2022. Height 1.50m, used condition but not missing, remains of polychromy.