Images(14)

Akpata

Vernacular Name

Pluriarc
Colangee

Date1900-1925 ca.

Place MadeBenin, Africa

Serial No.None

SignedNoneDescriptionPossible areas of origin for this pluriarc include Benin in south-western Nigeria (The instrument strongly resembles the illustration of a pluriarc used by the Edo speaking people of this area),Congo or Angola (according to Ken Moore), and Cameroon (instrument resembles a pluriarc from Cameroon in the collection of the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève).

Wooden resonator with eight gut strings running slightly inclined from the soundboard and individually attached to eight wood arcs.
Materials: wood sound box and arcs; vegetal wrappings; gut strings and wrappings.
Sound box: triangular-shaped, wood sound box consisting of five pieces of wood (top, sides, and back) laced together with vegetal and gut wrappings; bottom of sound box is open. Soundboard is elongated and extends past the top of sound box; ten holes pierce the lower section of the soundboard in a line; two additional holes are plugged with wood; seven gut strings strung through holes. Wood was at one point dark-brown, now surface is very worn and lighter colored in sections; wood is porous with rays visible throughout all surfaces.
Arcs: eight wood arcs made of branches, attached to back of sound box with vegetal wrappings; bottom ends stripped of bark - six are carved to a point; top ends cut at an angle and burned; attached to sound box by three sets of cane wrappings, separated by woven cane.
Strings: gut strings tied around end of arcs and strung through holes in soundboard secured by a knot.
Wrappings: cane strips used to tie sections of sound box together, reinforced later by gut; cane strips secure arcs to back of sound box in three sections; arcs separated from each other using cane strips woven between the arcs.Dimensionsall measures are taken looking at soundboard
Length of soundboard:ca. 240 mm9 5/8 in
Width of soundboard:ca. 125 mm4 7/8 in
Length of right side:ca. 205 mm8 in.
Width of right side:ca. 150 mm5 7/8 in
Length of left side:ca 205 mm8 in.
Width of left side:ca. 150 mm5 7/8 in
Length of arc 1:ca. 750 mm29 ½ in
Length of arc 2:ca. 800 mm31 ½ in
Length of arc 3: ca. 750 mm29 ½ in
Length of arc 4:ca. 770 mm30 1/3 in
Length of arc 5:ca. 770 mm30 1/3 in
Length of arc 6:ca. 780 mm 30 11/16 in
Length of arc 7:ca. 780 mm30 11/16 in
Length of arc 8:ca. 740 mm29 1/8 in.ProvenancePurchased by Paul Christian from Sid Glickman, Yonkers, New York, May 9, 1985.

Credit LinePaul and Jean Christian Collection, 2006

Object number10989

On View

Not on view