Featured Thrift Store Find: Carved, Painted Vessel with feet, Cameroon Grasslands?

I found this hand-carved wooden vessel at a thrift store near Palm Springs and would love help identifying it.

It’s about 12" tall, 7" wide, carved from a single piece of wood, with red ochre and white pigment absorbed into the surface. The vessel stands on four carved legs with painted toes and appears to have been hollowed by hand. The interior is darkened and textured, suggesting long use.

The collar has five carved white swags, and below it are four animal carvings: a crocodile, a bird, a possible monkey, and a mystery creature with prominent side-facing eyes and two red diamond markings.

What puzzles me is the layout: three animals are centered on their panels, while the mystery figure is crowded beside the bird, leaving one side largely blank.

That blank side feels intentional. If this was used as a grinding vessel or ritual object, it would likely be the side where the user stood, with the imagery or symbolic force directed outward rather than toward the operator. Curious whether that interpretation holds any water.

The absorbed pigment, patina, and wear feel older to me than tourist trade. I’m tentatively wondering about a Cameroon Grasslands origin (possibly Bamileke-related) based on the feet, ochre, animal imagery, and form, but I’d love informed opinions.

Any thoughts on:
• the mystery creature (frog? chameleon? tortoise?)
• the significance of the blank side
• the five-swag collar motif
• likely age or origin

Thanks for all your help in advance!

 

I have an update -- I think the mystery creature is an antelope. Please discuss!

 

likely bovine...imo

 

Okay -- two updates. #1 -- the object has four feet with SIX toes each! Also, I think it's an "Agere Ifá". This is a Yoruba divination vessel used to hold the sacred ikin (palm nuts) used in Ifá divination. The babalawo (divination priest) would use the nuts to consult Ifá, the oracle deity of wisdom and destiny. The vessel's carved figures and animals aren't decoration — they're active participants in the divination, embodying the spiritual forces being consulted.

 

Antelopes have horns.

Ditto.

It doesn't look Yoruba style, nor does it look like the Agere Ifas I have found online, which have the maternal figures holding or carrying a bowl, such as you find in the descriptions of the ritual:


https://www.plu.edu/africanartcollection/figures/agere-ifa/learn-more-agere-ifa/


https://www.schoolsofempireproject.org/agere-ifa

 

I have an update! This piece was most likely made by the Senufo people of Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire). They're mostly famous for their carved hornbill bird figures. Ithink this was a lidded bowl or carrier at one time. I've found examples of similar objects, but none of them have been painted in the same way so this is unique. I'm guessing it was made sometime in the early to mid 20th century. I do love solving a puzzle!

Also, I think the mystery animal may be a chameleon. In Senufo culture, the crocodile is a revered symbol of primal strength, endurance, and water, the baboon is primarily associated with divination, agrarian rites, and the mbotumbo (baboon) cult, serving as propitiatory altars to appease nature spirits, the hornbill bird carvings are central to the Poro secret society, symbolizing fertility, ancestral wisdom, and protection for the community, and in Senufo cosmology, the chameleon is highly revered as one of the very first animals to exist. It represents the origins of human existence and ancient wisdom.

 

Thanks for the updates, @Kelly Graziano !