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LOT 2396
African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask
MARKA, EARLY-MID 20TH CENTURY A.D.
135/8 in. (862 grams, 34.5 cm).
Hollow-formed carved mask with heavy brow, small square eye-holes flanking a triangular-section nose, narrow lower face with tassels. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, West Africa.
Private Hampshire, UK, collection of tribal art; acquired in the 1960s.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The Marka are a Mande subgroup. This ethnic group is independent from the Bambara but their styles show a strong Bambara influence. The Marka are famous for their masks and puppets. Similar to Bambara's ntomo society masks, Marka masks are generally carved with horns, comb or crest on top of the head, but unlike Bambara masks they are often covered with metal sheeting.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Indonesian Tau Tau Funerary Wooden Head
Toraja People, late 19th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Funerary peg head with bald scalp, delicate facial features with grooves delineating the piercing eyes and shallow lips; below the neck a cylindrical protrusion to be slotted into the carving of its body, commemorating a deceased person. 780 grams, 35 cm
From South Central Sulewesi, Indonesia. Ex private Surrey, UK, ethnographic collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman. -
African Wooden Ancestor Figure
Fang Tribe, 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £39
A hand-carved standing female figure with hands placed in front of the figure and wearing arm rings. 930 grams, 48 cm
From Equatorial Guinea, West Coast of Central Africa. From an old Bristol, UK, ethnographical collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The people that are called “Fang” in the geographic or ethnographic literature number 800,000 and constitute a vast mosaic of village communities, established in a large zone of Atlantic equatorial Africa comprising Cameroon, continental Equatorial Guinea and nearly the whole north of Gabon, on the right bank of the Ogowe River. The Fang practice a cult devoted to ancestor lineages, the bieri, whose aim is to both protect themselves from the deceased and to recruit their aid in matters of daily life. Bieri are reliquary figures placed by the Fang upon their bark boxes to personify the tribal soul, containing the skulls and skeletons of prominent deceased persons. The bieri also served for therapeutic rituals and, above all, for initiations of young males during the great so festival. The rites included consumption of a plant with stimulant properties, which induced a trance lasting for several hours, and the “resuscitation of the ancestors,” in which figures detached from the reliquaries were moved somewhat playfully from behind a raffia screen as puppets. -
New Guinea Wooden House Mask
Papuan, early-mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
Carved as an elongated face with feather headdress, inlaid with cowrie shells and with hog tusks to the nose; grip handle in front of the mouth. 1.55 kg, 64 cm
Ex Bury St Edmunds, UK, ethnographical collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
