IKWARA BLACK AFRICAN MASK is sale of the week
This wonderful specimen from the Puni tribe of Gabon is our sale of the week. 11 Bidders took the sale price to a reasonable US $299.99. Below is the sellers description of this mask:
While the white-faced masks produced by the peoples of the Ogowe basin appear frequently in collections outside of Africa and represented the spirit of an ancestor from the afterworld and were often used by stilt dancers for funeral rituals, the Ikwara (black)masks represent angry spirits, and it is therefore considered potentially dangerous to handle them. According to Perrois (1979: 235) the black patina on Punu masks is presumably an index of its more serious or darker role in judiciary services, potentially condemning the living.
According to Louis Perrois, the category “masks with black faces” make up about 8% of the corpus of the Punu masks.The temple of this mask is covered with real human hair, signifying the seriousness and importance attached to the creation of this mask.
Country: Gabon
Tribe: Punu
Measurements: Height 13″ Width 7″ Inches
Material: wood, Pigment and Paint and human hair
Condition: Old, age cracks, excellent condition
Congratulations to both the buyer and the seller.
