18th Century and Earlier Masks

Mask, Monpa-Sherdukpen people, Arunachal Pradesh, India A mask from the Monpa/Sherdukpen people of Arunachal Pradesh, which is thought to be a monk or one of the sons of Apapek. I...

Wooden mask with rock crystal eyes and bronze eyelids/eyebrows Circa: 711-332 BC Origin: Egypt.

A truly beautiful, wonderfully aged, alluring mask made for Japanese Noh theater. The natural faded beauty and unique character drew us to this mask immediately. This mask is handcrafted and carved from natural wood and lacquer. Ko-omote translates as "little mask" or sometimes "small face." This particular delicate featured mask (her red lips really stand out) is used for main and sometimes secondary roles when the character is a young girl or, in some cases, a supernatural being. What is also interesting about this mask is that remnants of the blackened teeth can still be seen. Centuries ago, it was customary for Japanese women to paint their teeth black after they were married. We believe this mask dates from the mid-late Edo period and thus quite rare. The mask was acquired from an antique mask...

Japanese Court dance mask / Bugaku, circa 1800 This mask was used in a form of traditional court dance known as bugaku during the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Traditi...

Very old African wooden mask with brown patina, resin-like mass with nassa snails on the five tooth-like projecting horns, minor missing parts (chin, nose) and snails, traces of insect caused damage. This beautiful piece comes with a custom-made stand. According to Robert Goldwater, former director of New York’s now-defunct Museum of Primitive Art (MPA), He describes Ntomo face masks as "among the most interesting of the Bambara [or Bamana] masks." He recognizes formal variety in the carving of Ntomo face masks, but he also specifies that an "oval shaped human face surmounted by a high comb of vertical spikes or horns" distinguishes Ntomo face masks from other types of face masks. Research indicates that the Bambara mask...

Antique Japanese carved and lacquered Noh Theatre mask on stand, Edo period, 18th Century. Dimensions: H 21 cm x W 14 cm x D 8 cm.

Monumental carved wood Chinese Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Head of a Luohan (or Arhat) exceptional carving, black glass eyes custom iron stands.

This amazing wooden sarcophagus mask is a stunning relic from Ancient Egypt. Originally part of a sarcophagus that was meant to forever protect the mummy of the deceased, this enigmatic face hails from the 26th Dynasty of the Late Kingdom. It is carved from a single piece of cedar and bears the original light ocher and black paint, representing the kah, or the image or immortal spirit double of the deceased. Once the mummy was in the sarcophagus, a life-sized image of the deceased was placed over his face. Wooden pegs were used to keep the wooden pieces in place, and the mask was then gessoed and painted with life-like features of hair, eyes, lips and facial color. Such masks were in use well into the Greek Ptolemeic period around 300 B.C.

Masks were a very important aspect of ancient Egyptian burials. In the Egyptians' complicated view of life after death, they provided the dead with a face in the afterlife and enabled the person's spirit, or ba, to recognize the body. Specific features of a mask, including the eyes, eyebrows, forehead and other features, were directly identified with individual divinities. This allowed the deceased to arrive safely in the hereafter, and gain acceptance among the other divine immortals in the council of Osiris, the great god of the dead. Initially made for only the royalty, such masks were later frequently crafted for the nobility. They were also part of the elaborate precautions taken by the ancient Egyptians to preserve the body after death. The protection of the head was of primary concern during this process. Thus, a face covering...