CONGO (DRC) Female statue, ‘Eastern Dream’ (Luba influence), Tanganika-Moero district (Katanga). Light wood with a brown patina, raffia fibres, bamboo beads, brass and iron. A standing female figure, hands resting on her abdomen, with a voluminous, cascading hairstyle. The face has closed eyes, three scarifications on the cheeks, and a rectangular mouth with teeth arranged in a grid pattern. Ringed neck adorned with a necklace of beads and metal wires; abdominal scarifications carved in a chequerboard pattern; painted solar motifs; feminine attributes highlighted with red pigment; raffia skirt. First third of the 20th century. Earlier indigenous repair using iron on the left arm. Contemporary collection inscription in pencil beneath the base: ‘Tanganyika / Moero’. 45 cm. Minor damage and losses. Provenance: the collection of John van Kessel (Antwerp, 1885), Secretary to the Minister for the Colonies (1920–1924), then passed down through the family. Archival file retained. See: F. Neyt, *Songye. The Formidable Songye Sculpture of Central Africa*, Fonds Mercator, Brussels, 2009, p. 85, no. 48 and p. 92, no. 54, for a comparable treatment of the mouth with lattice-like teeth.