This pair of figures appears to be by the same hand as three figures illustrated in Julius Lips, The savage hits back, London, 1937, fig.198 (female), fig.212 (males). There is a smaller polychrome example (75cm) by the same hand illustrated in Josef Kandert, Afrika, Prague, 1984, no.349.

The origins of this group of carvings is not easily determined. The latter figure is ascribed to the Congo, and Lips ascribes two figures to Dahomey and one to the Congo. The German attire of this male figure may indicate that it was carved in a German sphere of power such as the Cameroon Grassfields or Togo. Perhaps these conflicting classifications indicate that cross-cultural pieces such as these should not be forced into regional or ethnic categories because carvers, carvings and Europeans obviously moved around sub-Saharan Africa in the colonial period.

The attention to detail in the dress and facial features suggests that they are not imaginary figures. However, the exact identity of the subjects can only be speculated. Lips identifies the two male figures which he illustrates as portraits of King Albert I of Belgium who visited the Belgian Congo in 1909 (pp.235-236). The one figure is very similar to this figure, with elaborate uniform and sword, but with a slightly different uniform and facial features (in the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, acq. no.38818). The other male figure has a less elaborate uniform which recalls the treatment of the dress of the female figure, and he also holds a book in his right hand in a manner similar to the two figures illustrated here.

This male figure is wearing a German picklebein helmet which, together with his elaborate military attire and iron cross decoration, indicates that it is a portrait of a German leader or military official. In all probability, this figure depicts Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) who ruled from 1888 until 1918 when he went into exile. His portraits were distributed in the German-dominated regions; for example, see C Geary, Images from Bamun, Washington DC, 1988 pp.53-57 for an account of King Njoya receiving a photograph of the Kaiser.

This female figure and the one illustrated by Lips are upright Victorian/ Edwardian women wearing a dress with a high collar and narrow waist, and a hat. The fact that this example is holding a book (possibly a bible?) maysuggest that she is either a wife of a missionary or perhaps a prominent woman such as Mary Kingsley or Mary Slessor (who were both active in the Calabar and Cross River regions of Nigeria). Lips provides a long imaginative description for the figure he reproduces (from the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, acq. no.38817, bought together with 38818 from Gustav Umlauff, Hamburg, 1925). But his comments have surprising racist and sexist undertones considering his overall revisionist stance and his empathy for those oppressed by power and force. He writes,

'No European artist could better this wood carving from Dahomey. It embodies, in equal degree, all the grotesque features of the fashions of the day, together with the ungracious self-satisfaction of a certain type of woman who at the end of the century symbolized the idea of the "bluestocking". Here we are undoubtedly dealing with an actual portrait. [T]his figure is a masterpiece! What nimble observation, what biting criticism, and what sheer roguery, does the artist display here!' (pp.222-223).