Pacific Islands Masks

Very beautiful mask with large pronounced eyes with the circular cavity shape. The mask depicts a nocturnal bird that can see in the darkness and manifest the presence of divinities ...

This helmet mask created by the Mende people of Sierra Leone was made for the women of their tribe to wear while dancing. Commissioned by women for their ...

A very decorative fertility mask by the Baule tribe, associated with the Akan people who live both in Ghana and in the Ivory Coast. The sides with three...

Intriguing good looking mask artistically made of combination of hand crafted beads ,shells , and hand painted wood. To make such a exceptional object of art for display. Custom-mad...

Masks have been created around the world since ancient times, deeply connected to the human spirit. Many performing arts involving masks, where the wearer transforms into another bei...

This graphic Songye Kifwebe mask has fine carved lines curved over the eyes and diagonal lines radiating from the nose and mouth in classic Kifwebe form. ...

This very flat mask originates from the Atoni people of Timor. For the Timorese people masks portray both male and female ancestors, worn by warriors to scare off enemies or during c...

The African Kuba Bwoom tribal mask is the oldest known mask, the Kuba bwoom mask. The materials used for the realization of the Mask are: Wood, colors and vibrates plants, caures, beads, animal hair. In dance it expresses exuberance and joy. The style is similar to that of the middle Kasai. This mask is a helmet with animal hair, carved with a very wide forehead and hollow cheeks that are announced by motifs or dashes and beads. The mouth of the mask is very pronounced carved in wood and then applied on the mask. To distinguish the forehead in different areas are used black and white beads to draw attention to other aspects of the face such as the nose and chin. The entire edge of the chin is surrounded by beads of various colors. The person wearing the mask cannot look because there are no holes for the eyes present; the mask must create the feeling of being blind. Some masks similar to the bwoom mask include the funny mask, the ram mask and initiation masks such as Nnup. The real Kuba masks...

Antique Ethnic Artifact Sepik River Cassowary Bone from Papua New Guinea For many groups in Papua New Guinea, bone was an important medium for making tools of all types. This artifact is made from leg bone of a cassowary, a large, flightless, and extremely dangerous, bird. Cassowaries also play an important role in the mythology of groups in the Sepik River area. Though no longer used these bone artifacts are still used ceremonially. They often play important roles in male initiation and other rituals. They are also worn as personal adornment by tucking them into a band of braided fibers worn around the upper arm. Antique Ethnic Bone Cassowary Artifact with minimal carving and incised design confined to the joint end. A small hole has been drilled through from both sides of the top and presumably for the threading of a cord. The bone has been partially divided near the top and to form two prongs that project down the back of the dagger possibly allowing the user to wear is tuck into a waist band or belt. Origin Papua New Guinea Maprik Dist Area From the Art Collection of Marian and John Scott, acquired in 1962. Similar items are in display in the Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology. Purchased from the amazing private collection of Mark Lissauer who spent his life collecting niche ethnographic pieces. About Mark Lissauer: Mark Lissauer spent forty years travelling abroad for months at a time collecting ethnographic artefacts primarily from New Guinea and the islands of the West Pacific, and from Asia and Himalayan countries. Fluent in five languages and having in the course of business travelled to more than forty countries, Mark is well-known to museums and art-collectors around the world for his long career and his interesting and diverse collection of rare ethnographic material. Mark knows the origin and symbolism of each piece. Through extensive research and more than ninety trips around the globe, Mark familiarised himself with the traditions of the various cultures he visited in order to understand the meaning of each object to its region and tribe. His home has a specialist library and several rooms are filled with tribal carvings, textiles and ethnographica. He acquired his first tribal piece in 1948 during a business trip to Milne Bay, New Guinea, and has since documented the acquisition of some 35,000 items. Several thousands of these have been sold to important private collections and museums worldwide, including the Rockefeller Museum, the British Museum and the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, now incorporated into the Louvre Museum. Estimator certificate of authenticity by Wayne Heathcote Tribal Art Dealer and Expert. Heathcote has a flash gallery in Brussels, where much of the tribal art business is centred, and is an expert at Sotheby's tribal art sale...

This ceremonial African mask is linked to the Salampasu people of the Bantu ethnic group located primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Salampasu masks...

A small warrior spirit mask Northwest Coast Carved and polychrome decorated mask with horse hair, Hand carved by Charlie Mickey (1910-1988), Hesquiah...

A fantastic hand-carved primitive wood totem sculpture/ figure from the Sepik River people (Ambunti and Wewak) of Papua New Guinea. This work, which features tusked ancestral spirit ...