DOGON IRON LAMPS, MALI

DOGON, Lamp 1, 33.5", $600	DOGON, Lamp 1, 33.5", $600	DOGON, Lamp 1, 33.5", $600	DOGON, Lamp 2, 41.5", $900	DOGON, Lamp 2, 41.5", $900
DOGON, Lamp 3, 37", $350	DOGON, Lamp 3, 37", $350	DOGON, Lamp 4, 35", $250	DOGON, Lamp 5, 33", $300	DOGON, Lamp 6, 36", $350
DOGON, Lamp 7, SOLD	DOGON, Staff 8, 44", $350	DOGON, Lamp 10, SOLD	DOGON, Staff 9, 39", $350	DOGON, Lamp 11, 39", $350

DOGON, Iron Lamps, Mali

Functional iron lamps exhibit the technical skill and artistry that Dogon and Bamana blacksmiths brought to their work. They would do the smelting to get the iron from iron ore, then heat and hammer out both the tools and weapons used and the important ritual objects.

These functional iron lamps, with bowls to burn oil, could, with the addition of a figure, express status, prestige and power. They would bring honor to the ancestors, the current leadership and the owner of the lamp. They usually depicted a former leader, seated, standing or on horseback. Some would depict a hogon, the supreme officeholder, a semi-divine leader of great wisdom, or even a mythological emissary from a distant land.