TERA Gallery - African Art and Antiquities

"Altering The Way You View The World Of Art"
Type of Object:
    Hunting Dog Bells
    19th c.

    These beautifully crafted wooden bells are never seen
    in art collections.   

    These bells were first noted in the early 1900's by Dr.
    William Henry Sheppard (1865 – 1927) who was one
    of the earliest African-Americans to become a
    missionary for the Presbyterian Church, he spent from
    1890 until 1910 in Africa, primarily in and around the
    Congo Free State, and is best known for his efforts in
    publicizing the atrocities committed against the Kuba
    and other Congolese peoples by King Leopold II's
    Force Publique.  Although Dr. Sheppard's efforts
    contributed to the contemporary debate on European
    colonialism and imperialism in the region, particularly
    amongst those of the African American community, he
    received little attention in literature on the subject .

    By the 1870s Hampton University in Hampton,
    Virginia had established an African studies program,
    and in 1911 the school acquired the William H.
    Sheppard Collection of African Art – several hundred
    superb pieces gathered by Hampton alumnus William
    Sheppard.  Not only was Sheppard the first westerner
    to enter the Kuba Kingdom, he was first African
    American to collect African art in the late 19th and
    early 20th centuries. His contribution to Hampton
    University Museum’s collections gives it the oldest
    collection of Kuba-related material in the world.

    According to Dr. Sheppard in his reports about the
    dog that could not bark, the Besenji, he noted that  the
    dog owners when hunting would tied wooden bells
    with wooden clappers around their necks because
    each bell sounded different than the others allowing
    the owners to identify their own dog by the sound of
    the bells.

    These art objects have a beautiful patina, and no two
    bells are the same.  

    TERA Gallery is proud to recognize the distinguish
    and historic contributions of  Dr. Sheppard and the
    artistic genius of the African people.   

    This object is curently being studied in the TERA
    Gallery Reading Room.


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