Father said he traveled upriver to obtain the objects, and a photograph that appears to be Ldamie is found in his collection. Another photograph shows two of the pieces on a shelf in his house in Monrovia.

Walter Logan Fry in his house in Monrovia

All of the figures show the same degree of aging: a warm bronze patina, with no signs of corrosion or verdigris. They may have been new, or near-new, when collected.

Father brought back not only the figures, but also a mask and other objects of the period, objects similar to those in AMNH and the Peabody from the same period. Father never returned to Liberia, or Africa. He never collected other African Art. Not one piece was ever sold. All of the objects, except for the baskets, remained in attic of our house. The exception was the fanga player, which was on display in the Columbus Art Museum in the early 1950s. The objects were never mingled with other objects.

A final observation: many of the great collections that I have so far located from the era of 1925-35 have come from individuals engaged in banking and finance, including Sidney de la Rue (American Museum of Natural History) and C.R. Bussell (Baltimore Museum of Art). The Peabody Museum collection, undertaken as an anthropological expedition in the mid-1920s, was made in connection with the business and financial interests of United States and Firestone in Liberia. None of the collections referenced are collections arising from tourist traffic or the buying trips of art traders and gallery owners. Again, they arose from the activities of those in engaged for business and finance

in Liberia. The collection of Walter Logan Fry follows that pattern.

Ldamie

In Four Dan Sculptors, Barbara Johnson made the case that the major body of figurative brass work from Liberia was cast by Ldamie, primarily in the period 1925-35. Ldamie has been an elusive figure, despite the extraordinary coverage of his work around the world. In Hinterlands Liberia, Etta Becker Donner, an Austrian anthropologist, refers (but not by name) to Ldamie, stating:

"It is believed that formerly there were more men who could cast the remarkable little figures and animals in bronze, but now only two such men are left in the whole of Eastern Liberia. One of these, a Dan belonging to the Geh sub-tribe, is personally known to me. He is a thin old man (Etta Donner was what, 23 years old or so on her first trip) with a reddish-colored skin. The other was a Kran who was born near the French frontier. The first is the more genuine craftsman. He obstinately sticks to old complicated subjects, carefully hammers the metal smooth after it has cooled, while the Kran artist makes smaller, simpler figures, and does not work on them after casting. Both, however, lighten their work by melting down or reshaping old ornaments which are no longer in use, thus saving themselves the trouble of making fresh alloy." Becker-Donner, Etta. Hinterlands Liberia. London: Blackie & Son, Ltd. 1939. Reprinted New York City: AMS Press, Inc. 1977. p. 149.

While Etta Becker-Donner did not refer to Ldamie by name; she gave a big clue: she included a picture of the brass-caster in her work.

Ldamie Source: Johnson, Barbara. Four Dan Sculptors. p. 52