African ‘Nigerian’ Igbo Carved Maiden Mask/ Sculpture on Stand

A very engaging mask by the Chowke (Tchokwe) tribe of Southern and Central Africa who today reside primarily in Angola. This mask is intricately carved and is recognizable by the...

A wonderful, quite large and heavy, colorful Bedu plank mask by the Nafana (Senufo) tribe who reside in the central north-west of Ghana and the north-east of...

A beautiful, wonderfully crafted, alluring mask made for Japanese Noh theatre. This mask is handcrafted and carved from natural wood. 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 the blackened teeth which centuries ago, was customary for Japanese women to paint their teeth black after they became married. We believe this mask dates from the mid-to early Showa period, perhaps Mejia. The mask was acquired from an antique mask...

A fantastic and somewhat playful mask by the Yup'ik (Yupik) aboriginal, indigenous people of South-Western & South Central Alaska. The Yup'ik people, who are related to the Inuit peoples, have a long history of ceremonial mask making. Yup'ik masks were originally and specifically designed by Shamans and made to be worn by these spiritual leaders in Winter tribal dances and sacred ceremonies. Traditionally, the masks were destroyed or discarded after use in these ceremonies. Very few of these masks survived. After Christian contact in the late 19th century, masked dancing was suppressed and the tradition all but died out. As more outsiders settled in Alaska at the turn of the century, masks were made by the Yup'ik people to sell or trade for necessary goods. It is likely that this mask was created some years later for this purpose. In the 20th century, Yup'ik mask had a profound influence on many renowned surrealist artists including, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Leonora Carrington, Victor Brauner, and most notably Andre Breton who was an avid collector of Yup'ik masks. This fantastic anthropomorphic mask is carved of lighter wood, hand painted and decorated with pigment, and held together with natural fiber. The mask seems to represent some sort of smiling, benevolent spirit or character with its four eyes, bird beak, and cat-like ears. The mask is from a French collection. We were told that this mask, as well as others in the collection we have listed, was acquired originally in the 1950s-1960s in Alaska and the Yukon territory in Canada but as we have no way to verify or authenticate this. Please note we are listing the masks as decorative and not as actual tribal artifacts...

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 ...

Important mask with beautiful a patina over paint and sculpting note, heads on both sides. Acquired from an old private collection. An almost identical mask was exhibited in "African...

Early antique hand carved Toma or Landai mask from Guinea, Africa. “These brooding, often quite large, masks represent a forest spirit, Landai. Masks lik...

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...