117
FIG. 65 (far left): Page from the 1931 de
Miré catalog showing a caryatid neckrest.
Zimba; Maniema, DR Congo. Before 1927.
Ivory. H: 18 cm.
Henri Pareyn, Antwerp (by 1927); Bela Hein, Paris (1927);
Georges de Miré, Paris, 1920–1931; Étude Bellier, Hôtel
Drouot, Paris, 15 December 1931, lot 87; Charles Ratton,
Paris (1931). Image courtesy of the author.
FIG. 66 (left): Page from the 1931 de Miré
catalog showing a notable male fi gure. Baule;
Côte d’Ivoire. Before 1931.
Wood, glass beads, fi ber. H: 34.3 cm.
Georges de Miré, Paris; Étude Bellier, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15
December 1931, lot 24; G.F. Keller, Paris (GFK 150); Paolo
Morigi, Magliaso; Sotheby’s, Paris, 6 June 2005, lot 90.
Image courtesy of the author.
of African, Oceanic and Native American art, see Philippe
Dagen, “Ratton, Objets sauvages,” in Dagen, Charles
Ratton, 119–133; and Louise Tythacott, Surrealism and
the Exotic (London: Routledge, 2003).
29. In her provocative ethnography of French collectors of
arts premiers, Rolande Bonnain has termed this idealized
vision of Paris in the teens and twenties the fi eld’s
“légende d’or.” Bonnain, L’Empire des Masques: Les
collectionneurs d’arts premiers aujourd’hui (Paris: Stock,
2001).
30. “Vente de Miré,” press release addressed to Louis
Latzarus at the newspaper Gringoire, Nov. 16, 1931,
DA001305, MQBFLC.
31. Though Ratton claimed ownership of this object as early
as 1932, he did not fully purchase it from Carré until
November of 1934, for the sum of 20,000 francs. See
number 7654 on page 2 of the inventory balance sheet
in the folder “Ratton, 1930–1934,” 389AP35, dossier 1,
Fonds Louis Carré, Archives Nationales de France.
32. Nancy Cunard, ed., Negro (1934; New York: Negro
Universities Press, 1969), 729.
33. Baltimore Afro-American, March 23, 1935, 17.
34. Raoul Lehuard “Charles Ratton et l’aventure de l’art
nègre,” Arts d’Afrique noire 60 (1986): 17.
35. Typewritten draft contract between Georges de Miré
and Charles Ratton and Louis Carré, July 16, 1931, dossier
“Vente de Miré,” DA001305, MQBFLC.
36. Typewritten list of sale prices and buyers from the Étude
of Alphonse Bellier, AGL. The second-most-expensive lot
was the ivory Lega mask, lot 86, which Carré bought for
17,300 francs. Carré bought the Fang fi gure now known
as the Black Venus, lot 48, for 14,100 francs.
37. Jean Gallotti, “La vente des noirs,” Vu 198 (1931):
2891.
38. See, e.g., André Flagel (commissaire-priseur) and André
Portier (expert), Art Primitif: Afrique, Océanie et
Amérique (Paris: Drouot, 1925); Fernand Lair-Dubreuil
and André Flagel (commissaires-priseurs) and André
Portier (expert), Arts d’Océanie, d’Afrique et d’Amérique:
Collection d’un amateur (Paris: Drouot, 1929).
39. Alphonse Bellier (commissaire-priseur), Charles Ratton,
and Louis Carré (experts), Collection G. de Miré: Sculptures
anciennes d’Afrique et d’Amérique (Paris: Drouot,
1931), xii, xiii.
40. Ibid., iii.
FIG. 67 (above): Janiform
reliquary guardian fi gure.
Kota-Ndassa; Republic of
the Congo. Before 1931.
Wood, copper, copper alloy.
H: 59.7 cm.
Georges de Miré, Paris; Étude Bellier,
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 15 December
1931, lot 56 (not illustrated); Ernest
Le Véel, Paris (1931–probably 1969);
John J. Klejman, New York; private
collection, Washington, D.C.; Lance
Entwistle, London/Paris (2002).
Laura and James Ross Collection,
New York.
Photo: John Bigelow Taylor.