This is a door that gets people talking the moment they notice it: two of its carved figures are riding bicycles, mid-pedal, wheels and all. It comes from the Ekiti/Osi-Ilorin region of Nigeria, home to a Yoruba carving tradition well-regarded enough to have work in the British Museum's permanent collection, carvers who used narrative doors like this one to comment on the colonial world arriving around them. The carved face is organized into four registers bordered by a rope-twist band, musicians and attendants in one row, the bicycle riders in another, an animal flanked by its handlers in another, the ochre, red, and black pigment worn thin in places from real age and handling. 
The reverse is plain, sun-weathered, and pivots on its own extended stile rather than applied hardware, honest evidence of how it actually hung and swung for decades. At 27 inches wide and 54 inches tall, it's compact enough to anchor a gallery wall or hang solo above a console, with enough color and narrative detail to reward a guest who steps in for a closer look. Hang it where conversation happens, an entry, a bar, a reading corner, and let people find the bicycles themselves.

*Origin: Yoruba tradition, Ekiti/Osi-Ilorin workshop tradition, Nigeria
*Era: Early-to-mid 20th century
*Material: Hand-carved hardwood, painted pigment (ochre, red, black)
*Finish: Painted polychrome, genuinely worn with age
*Dimensions: 27"W x 1"D x 54"H
*Condition: Moderate antique wear, paint worn in places consistent with age, carving well preserved; structurally stable

A Yoruba genre door from the Ekiti/Osi-Ilorin workshop tradition of Nigeria, painted with narrative figures including colonial-era bicycle riders, in the same documented satirical genre-carving tradition as the Areogun panels held by the British Museum.

Q: Is this door connected to the famous Areogun panels at the British Museum?

A: Not directly, this piece isn't part of that documented set, and it's worth being clear about that distinction. What connects them is tradition and style: the same Ekiti/Osi-Ilorin school of Yoruba carving that produced Areogun's panels, known for narrative genre scenes depicting colonial-era subjects like bicycles alongside hunting and domestic life, framed by lattice and rope-twist borders. That school's work has been documented by the British Museum and covered by outlets like Smithsonian Magazine as genuine social commentary rather than incidental decoration. This door reflects that same visual language and narrative approach on a smaller, more personal scale, a related work in the tradition rather than a fragment of a specific famous set.