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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;2manybooks, post: 825933, member: 8267&quot;]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.</p><p><img src="https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2018/6/4/d/9/a/d9a56efa-35cb-4a19-90bd-56b72cb5e486.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><a href="https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/19085295-complete-ivory-chess-set-on-ivory-board-colonial-mission-goods-kuba-area-d-r-congo" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/19085295-complete-ivory-chess-set-on-ivory-board-colonial-mission-goods-kuba-area-d-r-congo" rel="nofollow">https://auction.catawiki.com/kavels/19085295-complete-ivory-chess-set-on-ivory-board-colonial-mission-goods-kuba-area-d-r-congo</a></p><p>According to the catawiki description of this set:</p><p>&quot;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.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>The design on the back of the woman&#039;s stool looks similar to the patterns produced on the local raffia cloth (known as &quot;Kasai velvets&quot;).</p><p><img src="https://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server4700/hljbfhf/products/1056/images/6558/Kuba_Cloth_F_cp_3__61143.1478994804.1280.1280.jpg?c=2" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The numbers may have been put on as a way of identifying all of the pieces of a set.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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