Help with two African carved statues

[silverdollarbill]

Hello,

Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't been going to sales much this year, which is why I haven't been posting. However, today I saw a family run estate sales near my house. Everything in the house was really old and it was one of the better sales I've been to in a while. The statues were prominently displayed right near the front entrance. Typically, I dont touch stuff like this.....but the house was filled with art/collectible books including some African art books.

I asked about the statues and the guy said they were at least 50-60 years old and that the relative who passed travelled a lot. The sales was not posted until 8am this morning and he said a few people had emailed asking to buy them. Anyway.....I took a chance and bought them. They stand a little over 2 feet. The larger one is holding a musket.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Ideas on how I can identify maker/age and access value.

thx bill

 

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[A2coins]

Those are really cool try whats it forum with no markings might be hard. Good luck

 

[silverdollarbill]

Found this site and sent an email: https://www.howardnowes.com/

Howard wrote back in less than a day.....they are a bit new newer than 60 yrs old, tourist pieces but nice.....tribes are: Yombe and Baule. Learned something new today.

 

[Force_of_Iron]

A lot of this stuff is modern fakes. However of all the fakes I've seen 99% of them are very dark / cheap woods. The top one may be legit, not so sure about the bottom. Best way to tell is look closely at the bases and look for signs of steady wear or marks from being moved around. If they are real it will show signs where there are natural grip or wear points you would expect.