{"id":3496,"date":"2015-11-04T20:12:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sledgeslam.com\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2015-11-08T20:14:42","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T20:14:42","slug":"pwo-mask-from-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/pwo-mask-from-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Pwo mask from the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/aaaMystrySolvd-854.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/aaaMystrySolvd-854.jpg\" alt=\"aaaMystrySolvd-854\" width=\"500\" height=\"754\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3497\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q:<\/strong>    I found this mask the other day at a local thrift shop.  The wooden portion is about 12&#8243; tall, 6&#8243; wide, and 2&#8243; deep.  It has carved decorations on the face including a swastika on each side of the chin. There is a wicker armature attached to the mask that holds the hair in place.  On the inside of is what looks like sheets of moss.  There is a knot, about 2&#8243; wide, like a bun, in the hair at the top of the head.  The hair is a mass of pieces of crude rope.  Some of the rope ends are cut and others have large knots tied in them. <!--more-->It has a strong odor, rather like incense, but I have no idea if that is from the materials themselves or if it picked up the odor somewhere.  Would I be smelling the wood itself and if so, any idea what kind of wood it would be?  The mask is fairly heavy. While I don&#8217;t expect it to be very valuable, I&#8217;m quite happy with it.  It intrigues me and has really sparked my interest in masks.  Any idea where it might have come from or what kind of a mask it is?  Julie, 854<\/p>\n<p><strong>A:<\/strong>  Nice description.  The Pwo represent a pretty girl and is a very common mask worn by the Chokwe people of the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I think it would look great on the wall as a piece of African decorative art. It was produced for sale to tourists and collectors, so it could easily have been carved somewhere else in Africa. It&#8217;s a lot of art for the money you paid.  <strong>B<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: I found this mask the other day at a local thrift shop. The wooden portion is about 12&#8243; tall, 6&#8243; wide, and 2&#8243; deep. It has carved decorations on the face including a swastika on each side of the chin. There is a wicker armature attached to the mask that holds the hair in place. On the inside of is what looks like sheets of moss. There is a knot, about 2&#8243; wide, like a bun, in the hair at the top of the head. The hair is a mass of pieces of crude rope. Some of the rope ends are cut and others have large knots tied in them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3498,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3496\/revisions\/3498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}