Featured Please help to identify

I was wondering if anyone could help me identify these little sculptures. I believe they are made of ivory, both stand about 4 inches tall and about 1 1/2 inches wide, and also they are numbered..... M0439104. Thank you in advance for any info. Much appreciated.

 

Yes, they are ivory. My guess is Congo, maybe @2manybooks can tell us more.
They look a bit like chess pieces.

If you ever want to sell them, ivory is protected and selling it is a problem.

 

@Any Jewelry Thank you for that information. It's a great starting point!

 

In the 1970s, people were afraid of losing what they considered valuable and engraved they DL# or SS# on a lot of items. That might be a DL#.

 

Yes, probably from the Congo, and probably by the Kuba people. There is a tradition of making similar, though larger, figures in wood and occasionally ivory, depicting royal personages. AJ may be correct that these were part of a chess set. A king or queen is usually depicted with a headress that looks like a board sitting on their head. So these may be pawns.

https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels...rd-colonial-mission-goods-kuba-area-d-r-congo
According to the catawiki description of this set:
"Pieces of such fine quality came to Belgium just before the war around 1935. They were brought back by early settlers and made upon commission in the Kasai region of Congo."

The design on the back of the woman's stool looks similar to the patterns produced on the local raffia cloth (known as "Kasai velvets").


The numbers may have been put on as a way of identifying all of the pieces of a set.

 

@2manybooks.... WoW! Thank you so much, you are so informative . Much appreciated.

 

You are welcome!