This carving relates to a group illustrated in R S Rattray, Religion, art and anthropology, Kumasi and London, 1927, pp.274-275. Rattray commissioned these pieces for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924:

'Being anxious to obtain specimens of the Ashanti wood-carver's art, unspoiled by the hybrid product of the technical and other schools, I scoured the country for some of the old wood-carvers of repute under the former régime, men who had not had European education or training of any kind, these artists set to work, at my suggestion, to portray in wood a king, a queen mother, and other officials in the entourage of an Ashanti Court in the old days. Beyond suggesting the subject as a whole, however, I did not take any direct part in the work, which, though modern in one sense, represents the technique and workmanship of the old school of artists. The workers entered into the spirit of my suggestion in quite a remarkable manner, and vied with each other in making every detail of the figures and their dress as accurate as possible. The original group comprised nearly a hundred figures.'

It has been suggested that this group of figures - for which there are no known precedents - formed the inspiration for the sets of ntan figures which were very popular in Ghana in the 1930s and 1940s. These later polychrome figures, which are collectively called Esi Mansa, were used in conjunction with the ntan drums in theatrical and musical entertainment. The sets usually include a queen mother, a chief, a colonial district officer, a policeman, a prisoner, bell ringers, drummers, swordbearers, etc (see Herbert Cole and Doran Ross, The arts of Ghana, Los Angeles, 1977, pp.176-179). The present-day variations on this aesthetic are the backbone of the popular taste for contemporary colourful colon figures.

The piece comes from the collection of Maurice Cockin who was in Nigeria as an administrator in the Owo and Ishan areas in 1911-1914 (sold, Christie's, Ethnographica, London, 16.7.1975, lot 5). It originally formed part of Sir Cecil Armitage's (1869-1933) collection which Cockin acquired soon after Armitage's death. Armitage served in the Ashanti Expedition of 1895, was in the Gold Coast and the Northern Territories in 1895-1920, first as an army officer and then as a Commissioner, and served as Governor of the Gambia from 1920-1927.