Mande Potters & Leather Workers; Art and Heritage in West Africa

Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1998. Hardcover. Good+ (slight foxing to block edges and wear to corners). Brown cloth boards with rust lettering on spine, color illustrated dust jacket with mylar cover, xvi, 192 pp, richly illustrated in color and bw. "Analyzing the work of Mande potters and leatherworkers, Barbara E. Frank argues that studying craft technologies in addition to object styles is esential for reconstructing the art heritage of an ethnically complex region. Drawing on her archaeological and historical evidence as well as her field research in Mali, she shows how tools and practices such as potters' use of convex molds and leatherworkers' adherence to specific knife blade shapes serve to distinguish the goods made by Mande artists from those of neighboring groups."- dust jacket. (Inventory #: 174393)