Figures & Masks - African Art

« Inquire About This Item » Igala masks can be divided to two groups: face masks and helmet masks. The latter category is slightly more commonplace but by no means abundant. This mask is distinctive in the extent of its detail, adornment and the preservation of it's attachments. The vast majority of Igala masks in museums and collections have been stripped of all but minor traces of their accompanying costume. Here a substantial portion of the grass and cloth ruff has been left in place along with lengths of homespun cotton strapping and a cast bronze bell. The costume may have been left intact because a section of the mask's rim in the rear is missing, probably as a result of the costume's weight during vigorous and repeated performance. The missing section constitutes an area about 1.5" by 6" but its loss is completely hidden by grass and cloth. An indigenous and well-traveled repair made of a piece of recycled board bridges the gap from within. The interior shows an extraordinary degree of wear. The mask has an unusual superstructure. Three mushroom shaped projections sprout left to right from the top of the mask. The outer two each sit beneath over-arching separately carved wood crescents which are pinned in place, topped with stucco and decorated with abrus seeds imbedded in dense wax or resin. In addition, a small flat flat visage juts from the helmet's forehead at roughly 75 degrees. The maskette's facial plane tilts skyward and carries a thick impasto of kaolin. It's chin is obscured by a forward projecting cone of stucco encrusted with abrus seeds. A similar treatment dons the helmet mask's chin and forms a protruding beard. This is a spectacular and unique example of a rare mask. Price upon request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This charming beaded doll comes from the Bergville and Estcourt areas of Kwazulu Natal. It dates from the 1950s or early 1960s. The structure is provided by a candy tin, lovingly decorated with beads, recycled leather, brass buttons, and yarn. Such dolls are not children's toys. They were commissioned by young men, filled with candies, and given to girlfriends or fiancees as gifts symbolizing commitment and affection. A beautiful and unusual example of southern African beadwork. 6" tall. Price upon request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » This dramatic figure is listed in the Yale archive. A number of very similar carvings, almost certainly by the same hand, also appear on the Yale site. These pieces all share common features, geometric anatomy, articulated arms, and leather attachments or remnants thereof. A set of three were auctioned by Sotheby's London in 1986, a single figure in New York in November of 1987, and another in the New York November tribal sale of 1991. These figures vary in patination with this example being the lightest in color. It has not been tampered with or enhanced in any way. The wood is dry and hard. There are no traces of either oil or wax anywhere on the surface. The Nyamwezi inhabit the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania. They constitute the largest ethnic group in Tanzania. Like their neigbors and close relatives, the Sukuma, they produce both masks and figures, often with fearsome aspects and robust features. 23.5" tall. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » Among the Ashanti people of Ghana, the small abstract figurines known as aku'aba are believed to possess the ability to aid women in the conception and delivery of healthy children. This mid-century doll shows ample signs of wear and is classic in form with its tubular body and flat discoid head. The vertical marks on the cheeks of this aku'aba are neither tribal markings nor decorations. Rather, they are intended as disfiguring scars to deter spirits from taking back the earthly child. Meanwhile, the markings on the back of the head are decorative evocations of hairstyles. 10", mounted on a wooden base. $850 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » This assemblage was once part of an assemblage of figurative elements decorating a support for a ntan or ompe drum ensemble. The man's cap and clothing indicate that he is a soldier. His raised arms bestow honor on a royal stool, flanked by ritual swords, set on the platform before him. On top of the stool sits a keg, perhaps of gunpowder or just as likely a ration of rum, and on top of that is an independently carved Enfield rifle. Thus he offers his allegiance both to his king and ancestry and to the colonial army that arms and feeds him. The wood is well oxidized but untreated. A typically fine Ghanaian carving assembled from several pieces of independently carved wood joined firmly together. $1500
« Inquire About This Item » An ancient figure of columnar form on a mid-century French base. The patina is dense and highly oxidized with the grain of the wood fully integrated with traces of ritual libations. The wood itself is dry, impregnated with oil, dense, and very solid. The legs were eaten away long ago, probably by vermin in situ, as sacrificial materials running down the body would have accumulated on the relatively thin and accessible limbs, rendering them inviting and vulnerable targets. The pose is classically Dogon, with the upper arms centered and parallel with the vertical torso while the forearms break forward at a 45-degree angle and swivel toward the center of the lower abdomen. They meet at the wrists with the schematic hands descending vertically. The figure has an oversized head turned to its left, an image understood to represent a masked or hooded practitioner of ritual circumcision. 11.5" tall. Ex. Merton Simpson. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » The Mwila are semi-nomadic herdsmen living in the rugged and arid interior of southwestern Angola. They are related to, among others, the Himba, Ngambwe, Zemba, and Nhumbi scattered north, south, and west of the Kunene River. Because of the difficult terrain in which they live, decades of civil war, and their independent nature, these tribes have maintained many of their traditional ways through the turn of the new century. Among the distinctive customs of these peoples is the use of headrests, the smearing of their bodies with animal fat and ochre, and the maintaining of elaborate hairdos, particularly among women. Upon marriage, Mwila women traditionally wear their hair in dense, oiled tresses built up with red ochre and decorated with beads, buttons, and shells. The front and rear halves of their coiffures are separated into distinct sections. A beaded headband rings the scalp and a thick, beaded collar encircles the neck. Mwila dolls celebrate the image of Mwila motherhood. They are carried and adored by young girls. This example is a classic of the form: a sturdy length of pithy wood has been crocheted all around, including a pair of breasts, with a netting of fiber daubed with fat and red ochre. Strings of beads circle the neck and forehead and decorate the plaited coiffure. For a similar example and a field photo, see "Hair in African Art and Culture" by Sieber and Herreman. 10" tall. $950 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » Leather wrapped figures are scarce in African art. Among leather wrapped works from Burkina Faso, Mossi dolls and Lobi and Gurunsi flutes are the most prevalent. This figure's size (16"), considerable age, and lack of wear patterns consistent with continuous handling suggest that it was neither a doll nor a diviner's instrument. The thin hide of a small mammal, perhaps a rabbit or squirrel, has been stitched with sinew over a boldly carved female form. While the figure came to me as Bobo, it is not certain that this is accurate. The head, with its medial crest and solid lug-like "ears", has a Mossi sensibility. The figure is subtly animated. Its face is turned to its right and the body twists as well. The braided belt and necklace adorning the body call to mind craftsmanship typical of such northern Sahelian nomadic tribes as the Fulani and Tuareg. Both the leather and the underlying wood are very dry. A unique and important work of art. 16"; ex Joshua Dimondstein, Los Angeles. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » The ridged torso of this remarkable figure calls to mind the segmented trunks of the miniature shrine ladders of the Dogon. Similarly, this figure has been imbued with repeated lashings of organic sacrificial material and like many of its Malian counterparts hungry rodents have taken advantage of this ritual practice to gorge themselves. The marks of their teeth chisel the edges of each tier as well as the spindly, knob-kneed legs. The dry, well-oxidized wood suggest decades of use; were it not for the devotions of rodents this fetish would surely bear a thick layering of accumulated material, but apparently its human devotees had other intentions. The lack of an oily or sooty patination indicates that the piece was kept at least partially exposed to the elements with it's feet on the ground and the back of its featureless head tipped against a wall or post for support. Nature was therefore allowed, if not invited, to participate in its public service. It's small, squirrel-like head is typically Chamba. 20" tall, $2800. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » The Ibo of the northern Cross River region are known as the Ada. According to G.I Jones among the Ada sub-group are the Afikpo whose traditional ceremonies included Isiji masquerades which young men were entitled to perform following initiation. Isiji masks or Mbudu were made of headpieces carved from a fresh, split calabash attached to a superstructure of bamboo, raffia leaves and string and liberally daubed with yellow ochre and other earth colors. While the majority of these masks were upwards of two feet in height another less common class of related masks were in use. These Mbudu masks, of which this is a very fine example, employed a more three dimensional, less elongated superstructure made of looping bush fiber rope held together with twine. The affect is utterly organic, colorful and transfixing. 12" high by 12" wide. Mounted on a custom base. $2500 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3
« Inquire About This Item » This small old Afo head crest most liekly originally had a chameleon or stylized chameleon-like form (lost to damage or erosion) arched between the two tallest, outermost verticals. The interceding verticals, with their arrow-like tips, would have pointed into the belly of the magical creature without quite touching him. At either end of the crest are simple moon-like faces turned in opposite directions. One has eyes and the other does not. An usual and lovely object. 10" high by 5" long (somewhat higher including the custom base). Ex. NYC collection. Price on request « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This sweet little flywhisk/doll is unique in my experience. It's all of 11" tall with a tiny face detailed with blue glass bead eyes. The Namchi are known largely for their geometrically abstract dolls which are highly sought after by collectors across the globe. Private US collection $850. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » This charming mask is from an East Coast private collection. Large Holo helmet masks are known as matemu. They have raffia fringes similar to Yaka masks and polychrome faces. This mask is smaller in scale at about 16" overall. It's horns identify it as a variation of the matemu mask known as mwela mbambala. Such masks are rarely seen outside of museum collections. Raffia ruff, carved wood face and textileover whicker superstructure. $6000 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » Sculptural portraits of politicians, celebrities, honored relatives and local characters became more prevalent in African art through colonial and western influences but it was never an alien theme. Nok, Ife and other ancient terra cottas can be very specific in their details. Makonde, Chewa and Ibo masquerades frequently lampooned popular figures, village buffoons and colonial administrators. This figure by an unknown carver is a charming rendering of one of the continents most notorious dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. The work sensitively captures his puffed up chest, rigid body and self satisfied smile. Mobutu's signature black framed glasses dismiss any uncertainty as to his identity. Photographs of Mobutu from the late 60s through 70s show show him in both his signature safari suit with leopard skin cap and in military garb. Such images adorned the walls of millions of Zairean homes as displays of allegiance to the cultish, kleptocratic leader. This figurine probably served a similar purpose, uniquely, in three dimensions. 12" tall. $1100 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This striking figure served for many years as part of an ancestral shrine in a traditional Senufo home. The patina shows years of accumulated sacrificial and airborne material. The underlying wood is extremely dry and well oxidized dating the figure to early in the 20th century. Senufo fetish figures are rare in western collections. The expression is serene. The sculpture is delightfully conceived of a series of repeating oval forms: head, ears, eyes, trunk, thighs and feet. 17" tall. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3
« Inquire About This Item » This 14" figure has a long neck, exaggerated legs and a lengthy history. It has been owned over the years by Charley Davis, Robert Lue, Bob Banks and Dr. Noble Endicott. The late Roy Seiber identified the carving as Montol. He had done field work in eastern Nigeria and photographed similar pieces in situ. The Montol are neighbors of the Mumuye and Chamba. Like the Mumuye Montol figures often have expressive faces with cat-whisker scarifications. Vestigial arms framing the chest are uniquely Montol. Mounted on a custom hardwood base. $1800 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » Professor Roy Sieber took a picture of a group of figures he described as Montol in the early 60s in Nigeria. Several were very similar to the pair on offer here. Unfortunately, I have only a Xerox of a Xerox copy of the original image; if I had a more legible image I would reproduce it here. Nevertheless the match is indisputable and so close as to argue strongly for their having been carved by a single individual, although the the sculptures themselves are distinct. These figures reportedly resided in an East Coast collection since the 1970s. Their patination and wear are identical and there is no reason to doubt that they are, if not an a actual couple, then remnants of an assemblage that were made and intended to be used side by side, most likely for a curative purpose as described by Sieber. Montol pairs are not unheard of although they account for a small proportion of positively identified works. The reasons for this rarity may be that they were rarely created or that they were frequently separated in the course of transit and sale. The female lost a foot sometime in the distant past and the male, while anatomically complete sports a dusty loin cloth which can easily be untied. About 7" tall. $2800 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This striking mask was collected in Mozambique in the 1940s by an American big game hunter who passed it down through his family. As a popular art form Mapiko masquerade has been in constant evolution. The earliest helmet masks, such as those in collection of the American Museum of Natural History had raised facial tattoos made from hard black bees wax. Authentic Mapiko (singular Lipiko) from the 70s, 80s and 90s are generally of a softer wood and have raised or more commonly incised facial markings if they have them at all. Most masks from the 80s and 90s do not as the tradition of facial and body tattooing (dinembo) fell out of fashion in the 1960s. This mask is carved from a hard, brittle wood. It is extremely dry. Extensive facial tattoos in a classic palm frond style (nadi) have been brushed on with a penetrating dye. The surface also bears traces of a cool, white pigment. While there is evidence of wear it is not extensive. The mask was sitting on a shelf and in an attic crate in the Midwest for 60 years. Mapiko of this vintage are extremely scarce. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » The Winiama like their neighbors the Bwa, Gurunsi and Mossi celebrate the natural world in their masking traditions. Monkeys, roan antelope, kob, warthog, crocodile, guinea fowl, chickens, fish and hornbills are a few of the many creatures depicted by Winiama carvers. However, in this menagerie fish are scarce. This old mask still retains some of its fiber cowl, a common means of attachment for Voltaic dance masks that is usually removed before export. Masks attached in this are worn above the head with the dancer finding his way by looking through a hood of dense netting. Today such netting is normally died a rich blue or red and often fabricated from commercial cord. The colors of this mask is are classic Winiama although only traces remain of the vegetal derived black, earth red and kaolin white. Some indigenous repair as can be expected from a mask that was vigorously danced over the course of several decades. 21" long. On a custom base. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3	« Inquire About This Item » The Fipa farm the highlands overlooking Lake Tanganyika and a Rift Valley plain in western Tanzania. Their origins lie in the eastern Congo where they would have come in contact with the Luba. Fipa statuary is characterized by strongly vertical figures of both sexes fashioned from a very hard, yellow-to-reddish wood often with pyro decorations. Patination normally results from the application of a vegetal oil rubbed onto the surface although in this sase some sort of resinous varnish was employed. Whether the source of this finish was of local or commercial origin has been difficult to ascertain. Typically, Fipa figures have a hollow dug into the tops of their heads into which a medicinal charge has been stuffed. In this example there are three holes which must be considered exceptional. There are additional charges in the belly of male side and that of the female side. Perhaps most extraordinary of all is the presence of two more charges in the top of the base of the carving. The Luba of eastern Congo also make janus male/female fetishes (kabeja) to which this figure may be related. A fascinating and exceptional work of art 13" tall; price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4
« Inquire About This Item » This is the only mid-sized Moba couple I have ever come across. The Moba make three genres of votive figures known as tchitcheri. They are distinguished by patronage, context, scale and degree of abstraction. The smallest, yendu tchitcheri, are placed in the personal shrines kept by all adults. They do not represent any particular person or spirit rather they act as a conduit with the Moba god. The mid-sized bawoong tchitcheri (between 12 and 40 inchestall) are installed in household shrines prominently located in the center of family compounds. Bawoong represent the parents or grandparents of family elders. As symbols of known persons they are more detailed than the smaller tchitcheri or the larger sakwa tchitcheri which honor the founding ancestor of the Moba. Unfortunately, the vast majority of tchitcheri on the market are copies with false patinas and inhanced weathering. Bear in mind the bawoong and sakwa tchitcheri are kept outdoors in a hot, savannah environment with seasonal rains. Note the appropriate level of detail on these bawoong figures (including sexual indicators and facial features), their varied patina, subtle and gently bowed bodies, highly oxidized surfaces and absence of an opaque or oily finish. Each 22" tall. Price on request « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » Of the over 3,000 Dan masks cataloged on the Yale GVR database only this one (Yale #0123310~01) displays this particular asymmetry. Harley collected a scant few masks of this type and considered them both rare and desirable. A similar mask is in the collection of William and Mary College; it appears in Harley's black and white image that accompanies this description. The notes are Harley's. According to Dan scholar Lou Wells, Harley asked $100 for that mask in 1951, four times his going rate for a typical old mask. While Yale cross references the mask on offer as a deformity mask, Harley identifies it as a hermaphrodite image. I believe Harley is correct: the iconography of each eye references a distinct Dan society, one male (Poro, tubular form) and the other female (squinting.) As each of society has its own dance and mixed ceremonies do not occur this begs the question of how such a mask could be performed. Although its patina and age hold up to close analysis, it appears unlikely that the mask was danced per se. Rather, it was the purview of a single individual, probably a medical practitioner who sought to display his otherness and power by drawing on not one but two secret societies, one male and one female. Ex Merton Simpson 1990s. 7" tall. A small area of restoration to the left chin. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » Heddle pulleys allow for the smooth operation of a weaver's loom. In Mali as in the rest of West Africa heddle pulleys are strung forward of the weaver over the evolving cloth, facing him slightly above eye level. Among the Dogon weaving is only undertaken by men. (Women cultivate the cotton, spin the yarn and sew the bolts into clothes and wraps.) Anthropomorphic pulleys are not common among the Dogon. A well used pulley such as this with its geometric features and charming face would have become well known to anyone who saw its owner at work over the years, typically under a shaded trellis in a lane between the mud-walled houses of his village. Hovering over his hands as he worked it would have wriggled and squeaked like a dashboard bobble-head doll entertaining him and all who kept him company. 4" tall not including custom mount. Ex collection Joseph Knoppelmacher since 1980. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » Benin's Fon are famous for their varied and imaginative wooden fetishes, terra cotta altarpieces, silver clad carvings and bronze or iron asen, portable altars topped with arrangements of figures honoring the deceased. In the city of Abomey artisans settled on lost wax casting as the preferred means of creating asen figurines in the 19th century. A distinct Abomey style developed that was refined both in technique and artistic expression. The creation of such castings was not restricted the altars. A variety of shrine objects were created as well along with courtly decorations, refinements for the homes of the Fon merchant and royal classes and as curios for French colonists and tourists. This figure is an early example of an Abomey casting with refinements in silver in the form inlaid eyes, navel and nipples and a prominent phallus. The figure does not appear to have been intended for placement on an asen as it is a singular embellished work with a well handled patina. 4.5" tall. Ex. NY collection. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This sensitive carving is a fine example of the gently satirical work of Thomas Ona Odulate, the most famous of the colonial era Nigerian carvers whose intended audience were expatriate Britons. Thomas Ona was a Yoruba. He began his artistic career at the turn of the 20th century in Ijebu Ode before resettling in Lagos where he continued to produce figurines and scenes of daily life until the late 1950s. His carvings are easily recognized for their distinctive proportions (big heads, prominent noses and weak chins) economy of craft and spot-on details. As is not uncommon in a Thomas Ona sculpture, the barrister's book is carved separately and held in place by simple joinery. The plush texture of the barrister's cloak is suggested by a pattern of dots executed with an awl. An Ona carving at the Brooklyn Museum, from what is likely the same period, depicts a minister with a similarly over sized book (although open rather than closed) likewise keyed into place and with a similar treatment to his cloak. The circa date the museum gives for its carving is 1940. 8" tall. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4
« Inquire About This Item » The Kuteb are upper Benue Valley neighbors to the Jukun, in eastern Nigeria. They are also known as the Jompre - an apparently derogatory name given them by their adversaries. Kuteb masks are very rare. The group is small in number and today largely Christianized. Their masks are fabulously abstract, zoomorphic and normally decorated with abrus seeds adhered to the surface with resin or the dense wax of species of ground dwelling, sting-less bees. This remarkable mask was first exhibited in the United States at the Fowler Museum more than 25 years ago where it was photographed by Arnold Newman. It had been in a California collection ever since. The wood is very dry and shows considerable age. No traces of its original costume remain although this would have consisted largely of bound grass descending in a great heap on all sides with the mask anchoring it all from atop the dancer's head. 19" in length. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » This wonderfully carved Nuna figure stands 9.5" tall. The facial scarifications and coiffure are key identifiers. Lighter area of patination on the body suggest that it was at one time wrapped or partially clothed. Ex. collection Drs Noble and Jean Endicott, NY. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4	« Inquire About This Item » The most familiar form of Makonde mask is the so-called hemet type, the lipico. However, of the dozen or more masks identified as Makonde in Krieger's Ostafrikanische Plastik, all of which were collected prior to 1918, every one is a standard face mask. In fact, the majority of Makonde masks historically are of this latter form although they are essentially worn in much the same manner as a helmet mask: high on the head (rather than over the face) and bound in place with a hood of old cloth tied or tacked around the carving's perimeter. This mask-hood combination covers the dancer's head entirely. The carving likely dates to the 1940s. The wood is an extremely hard variety carved by a practiced professional. As both Makonde men and women wore lip plugs before the practice fell out of favor around mid century it is difficult to say whether this mask, with its perforated upper lip, represents a male or female character. The outer surface of the mask has been colored with what appears to be a stain rather than paint in subtle and sumptuous tones. There is some old loss to the mask's upper rim and top of left ear; neither detracts from its beauty. 7" tall, mounted on a custom base. Ex. Pace Primitive; ex NY collection. Price on request. « Inquire About This Item » View Number 2 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 3 « Inquire About This Item » View Number 4