Tribal Masks

Reliquary Figure
Gabon
£ 680

The Reliquary figure of Gabon has been considered to occupy the very summit of African creativity.  Kota have become icons of world art.  The basic elements of this tradition are distinctive and do not exist elsewhere in Africa.  Carved in wood, the human head is rendered with a graphic geometrical shape, flattened, mostly two-dimensional, rising vertically on an integrally carved cylindrical neck above an open lozenge.  The front is covered with an arrangement of flattened metal pieces.  No two figures are entirely identical.
 

Nigeria
SOLD

The Yoruba people are an ethnic group of south-western and north-central Nigeria and constitute over 40 million people in total.  With an open aggressive mouth, olive shaped eyes, this is a modern representation of what is worn to honour the gods and the ancestors.

Reliquary Figure
Gabon
SOLD

For their creators, these figures embodied a mystical conduit between the living and the dead.  The highest examples of this artistic practice reveal to us artists whose formal ingenuity, use of materials and artistic skill resulted in a condensation of spiritual force in league with the great sacred sculptures of the world.

Cote d'Ivoire
£ 680

The Baoule are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in Cote d’Ivoire.  Traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Cote d’Ivoire, in a triangle shaped region between the rivers of Bandama and N’Zi.  They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonisation of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many other groups.  Baoule art is sophisticated and stylistically diverse.  Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice.  These masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world.  With typically bulging eyes, an open mouth, the masks were used in dances and ritual celebrations.

Ngil mask
Gabon
£ 590

The majority of the Fang tribe inhabit the equatorial rain forest of Gabon.  Representing a male. This Ngil mask was worn during the initiation of new members and the persecution of wrongdoers.  Fang people have a patri-lineal kinship social structure.  The villages have been traditionally linked through lineage and are exogamous, particularly on the father’s side.  Polygamy was accepted in the culture and they are traditionally farmers and hunters, but became major cocoa farmers during colonialism.   

Cote d'Ivoire
£ 420

The Baoule are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in Cote d’Ivoire.  Traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Cote d’Ivoire, in a triangle shaped region between the rivers of Bandama and N’Zi.  They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonisation of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many other groups.  Baoule art is sophisticated and stylistically diverse.  Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice.  These masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world.  With typically bulging eyes, an open mouth, the masks were used in dances and ritual celebrations.

Nigeria
£ 380

The Yoruba people are an ethnic group of south-western and north-central Nigeria and constitute over 40 million people in total.  With olive shaped eyes and a small round mouth, this is a representation of a young beautiful female figure.

Mali
£ 1,255

The Senufo consist of a diverse subgroups living in a region spanning Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso.  Senufo peoples are agricultural, their major crops including corn and millet.  They are outstanding musicians, and are internationally famous for their wood sculptures.  Figures like this, representing a mother and child, occur less frequently.  According to their belief, children are blessings from the gods.  Before the advent of modern medicine, women petitioned certain deities for fertility and the birth of a healthy infant.

Hyaena mask
Mali
SOLD

From the Bamana people of Mali, it is a classic example of a Kore society mask worn by adult Bamana males during initiation of young men into adult status.  The mask is worn by the most senior man representing their personal struggle to achieve knowledge and wisdom.  The symbolism combines human and hyena features.  Traditionally, hyenas were thought by the Bamana to represent foolish behavior reflecting an uninformed view of the world, very much like the young male initiates.  Carved from a single piece of wood, it demonstrates the skill of the Bamana artisan.

Ngil mask
Gabon
SOLD

Representing a female of the Fang tribe with its typical elongated fine nose, heart shaped face and tiny eyes.  The Ngil society disappeared with the beginning of the colonisation of Gabon in the early 1930s. 

Cote d'Ivoire
£ 420

The Baoule are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in Cote d’Ivoire.  Traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Cote d’Ivoire, in a triangle shaped region between the rivers of Bandama and N’Zi.  They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonisation of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many other groups.  Baoule art is sophisticated and stylistically diverse.  Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice.  These masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world.  With typically bulging eyes, an open mouth, the masks were used in dances and ritual celebrations.

Mali
£ 840

This Senufo male figure holding a staff and an egg is a rare representation of fertility.

Mali
SOLD

The Marka are a Mande subgroup and neighbors to the Bamana.  The tribe often exhibit a small mouth with raised lips at the bottom of a elongated face.  The nose is long and thin with eyes cast backwards.  The main distinction is the Marka’s use of metal sheeting, often bronze, copper or tin sheeting affixed on the face with small tacks or brads.  These masks were used in ceremonies to ensure a successful hunt or a bountiful harvest or for circumcision ceremonies which is an initiatory ritual into manhood.

Gabon
£ 410

The majority of the Fang tribe inhabit the equatorial rain-forest of Gabon.  Normally worn by the spiritual leaders, this mask with a child on top was a symbol depicting wealth and prosperity.

Ngil mask
Gabon
SOLD

Representing a young male of the Fang tribe. This Ngil mask was worn during the initiation of new members and the persecution of wrongdoers. Masqueraders, clad in raffia costumes along with helpers, would materialise in the village after dark each of which would bear a torchlight.  Ngil masks are normally elongated with the carved lines running from the forehead to the top of the nose. 

Cote d'Ivoire
£ 520

The Baoule are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in Cote d’Ivoire.  Traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Cote d’Ivoire, in a triangle shaped region between the rivers of Bandama and N’Zi.  They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonisation of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many other groups.  Baoule art is sophisticated and stylistically diverse.  Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice.  These masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world.  With typically bulging eyes, an open mouth, the masks were used in dances and ritual celebrations.

Nigeria
SOLD

Living in the forested areas of south-west Nigeria, the Igbo use thousands of masks, which incarnate unspecified spirits of the dead, forming a vast community of souls.  These two pieces, characterising the male and female, are often used during sacred rituals, representing ancestors.

Cote d'Ivoire
£ 420

The Baoule are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in Cote d’Ivoire.  Traditionally farmers who live in the centre of Cote d’Ivoire, in a triangle shaped region between the rivers of Bandama and N’Zi.  They waged the longest war of resistance to French colonisation of any West African people, and maintained their traditional objects and beliefs longer than many other groups.  Baoule art is sophisticated and stylistically diverse.  Non-inherited, the sculptor’s profession is the result of a personal choice.  These masks allow a closer contact with the supernatural world.  With typically bulging eyes, an open mouth, the masks were used in dances and ritual celebrations.

Nigeria
£ 290

The Yoruba people are an ethnic group of south-western and north-central Nigeria and constitute over 40 million people in total.  With a brightly coloured elongated face and closed eyes, this is a modern representation of a female.

Ladder
Mali
£ 960

These were used in a Dogon village to climb to the flat roof of a home, which was used for storage, living and in appropriate weather, for sleeping. 

Nigeria
£ 480

This is a modern representation of a female Igbo sculpture.  It’s decorative coloured beads and metal work is typical of Igbo peoples’ art.