{"id":6926,"date":"2018-08-25T21:11:05","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T21:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/?p=6926"},"modified":"2018-08-25T21:11:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T21:11:05","slug":"old-java-mask-with-nice-patina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/old-java-mask-with-nice-patina\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Java mask with nice patina"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Q:<\/strong>\u00a0 We bought the two golden masks from a large online dealer last year for fifteen dollars each.\u00a0\u00a0Some research indicated that\u00a0the black mask which we have had for over two years now was\u00a0from Bali in Indonesia.\u00a0 But that is all we know.\u00a0\u00a0The large golden mask is seven and a half inches high by 6 inches wide..\u00a0\u00a0I am attaching photos including the mask I already sent, and front and back views of the other two masks.\u00a0 Thanks for the prompt reply and your interest.\u00a0 Robert, 1426<\/div>\n
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A:<\/strong>\u00a0 I like all three of your masks, but this one, a female character from Topeng dance drama, is my favorite. It is a popular mask made by a village mask-maker, not a high-end professional. What makes it nice is that that the years of usage and repainting have left it with a rich patina. The word patina, if we are talking about ethnographic masks or other kinds of tribal art, means aging in an attractive way. Unfortunately, we frequently see aging that has been done artificially to make the mask appear to be older than it is, which is important to both tourists and amateur collectors. That piece of black rubber on the back is for biting down on to hold the mask against the dancer’s face.<\/div>\n
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Mask makers from all over the world do colorful masks for their fellow villagers to use for ceremony or dance. And they also make a lot for sale to tourists and collectors, for which they usually can get a much higher price. I think most of us would do the same if we lived in a third-world country.<\/div>\n
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Let’s not forget that masks made for sale can be worth collecting, especially if a lot of time is devoted to carve and decorate the piece. It’s a shame that most mask on eBay are carved quickly, then antiqued to make them look old. Try to avoid those kinds of items… even in a thrift shop or garage sale.\u00a0 A\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q:\u00a0 We bought the two golden masks from a large online dealer last year for fifteen dollars each.\u00a0\u00a0Some research indicated that\u00a0the black mask which we have had for over two years now was\u00a0from Bali in Indonesia.\u00a0 But that is all we know.\u00a0\u00a0The large golden mask is seven and a half inches high by 6 inches wide..\u00a0\u00a0I am attaching photos including the mask I already sent, and front and back views of the other two masks.\u00a0 Thanks for the prompt reply and your interest.\u00a0 Robert, 1426 A:\u00a0 I like all three of your masks, but this one, a female character from Topeng dance drama, is my favorite. It is a popular mask made by a village mask-maker, not a high-end professional. What makes it nice is that that the years of usage and repainting have left it with a rich patina. The word patina, if we are talking about ethnographic masks or other kinds of tribal art, means aging in an attractive way. Unfortunately, we frequently see aging that has been done artificially to make the mask appear to be older than it is, which is important to both tourists and amateur collectors. That piece of black rubber on the back is for biting down on to hold the mask against the dancer’s face. Mask makers from all over the world do colorful masks for their fellow villagers to use for ceremony or dance. And they also make a lot for sale to tourists and collectors, for which they usually can get a much higher price. I think most of us would do the same if we lived in a third-world country. Let’s not forget that masks made for sale can be worth collecting, especially if a lot of time is devoted to carve and decorate the piece. It’s a shame that most mask on eBay are carved quickly, then antiqued to make them look old. Try to avoid those kinds of items… even in a thrift shop or garage sale.\u00a0 A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bali-java"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6926","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6933,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6926\/revisions\/6933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}