Bamileke Decorative Dance Crest, embroidered with European Glass Beads

Bamileke Decorative Dance Crest, embroidered with European Glass Beads, Grasslands People, Cameroon. Private Collection Bordeaux The raffia splint is covered with cloth and colour...

Bamileke Decorative Dance Crest, embroidered with European Glass Beads, Grasslands People, Cameroon. Private collection Brussels The raffia splint is covered with cloth and colou...

Bamileke Decorative Dance Crest, embroidered with European Glass Beads, Grasslands People, Cameroon. Private collection Brussels The raffia splint is covered with cloth and colou...

Bamileke Decorative Dance Crest, embroidered with European Glass Beads, Grasslands People, Cameroon. Private collection Brussels The raffia splint is covered with cloth and colou...

A rare imported commodity, glass beads have been a symbol of wealth and importance in south African cultures for centuries, and were exclusively distributed by the region's oba (king). As beads become gradually more accessible throughout the 19th century, they began to displace the organic materials used in traditional art and attire. This colorful example of African beadwork is a ceremonial doll...

Sometimes referred to as dolls, this is a highly abstract figure with conical head, arms and legs held out from body, long columnar neck wrapped with mulitple strands of different si...

There are nearly eighty styles of Dogon masks, and for the most part they all utilize the use of various geometric shapes in their design, independent of the various animals they are...

A strikingly darkly patinated and geometrically inscribed ritual mask made by the Senoufo people of the Ivory Coast. This delicately carved mask, with its characteristic arched eyebrows, oval head and narrow eyes represents a beauteous female spirit, with desirable dark skin, facial scarification to the sides of the mouth, and at the edges of the mask the elaborate rounded and rectangular hairstyles worn by women in Senoufo society. However, a mask of this sort, known as a ‘Kpelié’ mask...