This is a fine and robust Teke necklace known as mulua u a mpu, which denotes chiefly status. Hand cast in circular form, the whole is decorated with linear designs both incised and embossed, arranged in a highly structural manner and carried beyond the confines of the circular silhouette by periodic rectangular flanges.


Teke
Hand-forged brass
late 19th/early 20th c
H: 12" W: 12"
private UK collection