This São Roque’s spoon, featuring a male figure to the handle, probably a Portuguese attired in contemporary fashion and with his hands joined in prayer. The delicate and stylized carving reveals the elaborate aesthetics of this interesting Sapi-Portuguese object, belonging to a group of sculpted ivories produced by the Sapes, or Sapi - Peoples from Sierra Leone-, between 1490 and ca. 1525 , during the earliest contacts with the Portuguese, upon Pedro de Sintra’s arrival to this Guinean Coast region in 1462.The spoon bowl shape can be compared to the spoon at the Metropolitan Museum (Fig. 1), a characteristic that is common to all the Sapi spoons. Human depictions are very unusual in forks and spoons from Sierra Leone, just as they are in pieces from the Kingdom of Benin. In fact, European figures can only be seen in three spoons from Sierra Leone - this spoon from São Roque collection, one from the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the third one, just a fragment, from a private collection (Fig. 2).


The cluster of carved objects from Sierra Leonne, referred to as ‘Sapi-Portuguese’, includes salt cellars, oliphants and other typologies. Resulting directly from these cultural and artistic interactions, these items were produced for exporting , identified for their hybrid nature, and consequently classified by William Fagg (1959) as “Afro-Portuguese”. Within this generic categorisation, they are joined by ivory carvings from a second western African production centre, the ancient Kingdom of Benin, in present-day Nigeria. From the sixty-one recorded from Benin, only one features a barefoot European figure, probably a Portuguese sailor, attired in doublet, hat and sheathed sword, analogous to those represented in saltcellars (Fig. 3). Comparatively to the Edo-Portuguese (or Bini-Portuguese) ivories, the Sierra Leone production was considerably smaller. In Ezio Bassani’s catalogue (2000) were merely recorded ten Sapi-Portuguese items, including our spoon, featuring an anthropomorphic figure. Studied as tangible historical “records”, these artworks are revealing of encounters between different cultures, and hence combine African and European, mainly Portuguese, shapes, techniques, and iconographic motifs, generating a new style. A later classification – Luso-African ivories – was aimed at emphasising their local character, the African context in which they were produced. It must also be noted that the syncretic nature of these carved objects, evidences the fact that this production resulted from a fruitful intercultural phenomenon. Integrated in princely and aristocratic European kunstkammern from the 16th century onwards, these ivories were soon mentioned in contemporary Portuguese records. The receipt letter from Afonso Eannes do Campo (1491-1493), represents one of the earliest references to pieces of this typology, specifying that this Keeper of the Royal Warehouses in the Cape Verde Islands, received fourteen ivory spoons, most likely originating from Sierra Leone. Equally relevant are the accounts by Duarte Pacheco Pereira (1505-1508), noting that in Sierra Leone were made the most delicate, and better carved ivory spoons from these western African regions. Testifying to the provenance of such objects, other references do also supply relevant details regarding their production processes, such as those by Valentim Fernandes (ca. 1506-1510), one of the German origin printers that settled in Portugal. Praising the skills of these sculptors, he mentions their ability in producing saltcellars and spoons, as well as the drawings that were supplied for this ivory production, qualifying these pieces as “muy marauilhosas de ver” (very wonderful to see). Similarly, and still recalling references to these Sierra Leone productions in European inventories dated from 1560 onwards, Father Manuel Álvares (1616), registers his appreciation of such spoons, that feature various motifs such as, “(…) cabeças de bichos, pássaros e seus próprios corofis, com tanta perfeição que não há mais que ver” (beasts heads, birds and their own corofis, with such perfection that there is nothing else to see) . “Corofis” or krifi were Temne People spirits or deities, alluding to a religious use of the spoons made by the Sapes, and highlighting the symbolism attributed to ivory, which is present in both European and African societies.A cluster of Luso-African cutlery from these two African regions, as well as some fragments, have also been recently unearthed in Lisbon and in southern Portugal’s archaeological contexts, namely in locations connected to religious cult, such as convents, churches, and monasteries, as well as close to aristocratic residential buildings. Distinct sculpture workshops in which various artisans operated, have been identified in Sierra Leone. In such instance it is only expectable that carving differences between objects featuring identical iconographic motifs, could occur. In fact, there are some marked differences between spoons produced by different hands, despite some sharing the same ornamental motifs. The depiction of Portuguese in pieces from both production centres—Benin and Sierra Leonne—is revealing of differing perceptions of these foreigners, as well as of the development of the Luso-African relations. Despite their stylistic differences, the way the Portuguese are represented reveals the degree of local acceptance in the two ivory carving regions. Considering this artistic and cultural intersection, other factors must be considered relating to the iconography, which are associated to the commissioning and circulation of this type of items, such as the period when they were ordered (or exchanged), between the late-15th and the 17th centuries, and the continuous expertise of artisans from distinct workshops, producing more of less elaborate objects according to the skills they had themselves mastered in carving; and also the status of the recipients of these objects: for themselves, for indigenous diplomatic offers, or as gifts for the European elites through the Antwerp trading outpost, amongst others.In conclusion, the eclecticism and syncretism present in the exporting ivory production from Sierra Leone, and concomitantly, in Manueline art, reflect not only the hybrid character of Sapi ivories, but also the Euro-African cultural relations established at that period, which were characterised by mutual artistic transfers.
Leonor Liz Amaral
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