Details

LOT 2323

African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask

LEGA WAREGA TRIBE, EARLY 20TH CENTURY A.D.

8 3/4 in. (181 grams, 22.1 cm).

Hollow to the rear with protruding bosses for the eyes, applied fabric to lower edge. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa.
From the Estate of Dr J Bynon; acquired 30 July 1911.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.

Footnotes

Most Lega masks are sculptures of a human face that are rarely worn over the face and never for purposes of true transformation. The Lega masks can be assigned different uses and meanings depending on the context of the performance. In Bwami ceremonies, masks are attached to different parts of the body, fixed to hat, piled in stacks, hung on fences, held in the hand, dragged on the ground, and occasionally worn on the forehead with the beard draping over the face of the wearer or arranged on a miniature palisade. Participants in most rites display their masks as a group in conjunction with particular dance movements and aphorisms, which vary depending on the context in which they are used. Lega masks differ from those used in many other African masquerades in that while women do not own them, both men and women handle and present them in very similar performances. Masks are among the initiation objects displayed on the grave before being passed to new owners. They are usually passed from an uncle to a nephew.