Q: Thank you for your e-mail and thank you for your interest in the mask or is it more of a helmet? It is about 10.5 inches in height. The ornament on top is 3 inches. The circumference at the nose is roughly 24 inches. This was a gift from a very generous collector. I have no further information. I will attempt to contact him today for more details. Shelly, 1633 A: I searched for Cambodian, Burmese, Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan and other masks with no luck. Thus goes the work of The Mask Man– a guy who claims he knows about masks from all over the world. There certainly are…
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Early Kuba mask with provenance
Q: Hello from Belgium. Here is one of my favorites from my collection of masks of the world. It is 19th century and a part of the objects brought back from Congo during the 1st Belgian expedition organized by the CCI (Compagnie pour le Commerce et l’Industrie) to Katanga 1891-1893 and led by Alexandre Delcommune. This is the first Royal Kuba masks, Ngaady a Mwaash, known to be brought in Belgium in 1893 and probably the only known to date to have the nape covered with commercial fabric that was a royal exclusive Kuba privilege before the submission of the Kuba Kingdom in 1904. It comes from the estate of…
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Botarga mask from Spain
Different parts of Spain have their own unique ways of designing masks and costumes for celebration. I believe the botarga, a distinctive character associated with the traditional winter festivities in the region of Guadalajara, is the fifth blog I done on Spanish masks. They are all different. The botarga is a character connected to today’s religious celebrations. Its origins are thought to date from pre-Roman times and to be related with fertility rites. The mask’s typical accessories are the brightly colored costume, a truncheon, castanets and the cowbells tied around the waist. It is made of brightly painted walnut wood. The face resembles a devil, with an open mouth, pointed…
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3 more Tukuma masks from Amazon
Q: Thank you for taking the time to take a look at these items. There are 3 figures. Each measure to approx 52 inches in total length. My grandfather acquired them in the Brazilian Amazon maybe 10 years ago. He got them directly from an indigenous tribe when he was on a excursion up through the Rio Negro with my brother. I don’t know the name of the tribe, however, after doing some research I was thinking maybe Tikuna? He told me that they were guardians against cannibals, but he could have made that up. He was quite the story teller. Let me know what you think. I’d love any…
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Baule portrait mask from Ivory Coast
Q: Picked this up at an auction. There is some damage on the top, but I don’t know what caused it. Wondering how old this is and where it is from? Despite the damage, is it still collectible? Pat, 1628 A: You have found an attractive mask and asked some good questions. Damage like this doesn’t lower its value… but being a reproduction does. To the average collector this is good news because an old and used piece would cost so much more. It was probably made recently, but age is of little concern for a reproduction. What you have is collectible. The Baule are one of the Akan peoples.…
