Bassa Maskette with Pursed Lips

Passport masks were known to the Dan and related peoples who made and used them as “small heads,” “ancestor substitutes” and “things that are fed.” The term passport mask was an invention of Europeans, derived from the observation that men often carried them on their person. Individuals with a spiritual connection with a mask, such as Poro society members, or those whose family own an important mask, are respectively required or entitled to commission a miniature version of that mask. Passport masks are stored wrapped in cloth or in a draw-string pouch, sometimes with other regalia such as a miniature dance skirt. The maskettes are occasionally removed and rubbed with oil and ritually fed, but generally they are kept on the owner’s body or among his possessions. This particular mask is from the estate of a New York couple who acquired the maskette along with two others in the 1960s. This is a powerful, beautiful and expressive example with excellent age. $550

3″

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