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Details
LOT 2339
African Wooden Ceremonial 'Forest Spirit' Face Mask
KWELE TRIBE, EARLY-MID 20TH CENTURY A.D.
19 5/8 in. (1.2 kg, 50 cm).
Carved wooden 'Four Faces Forest Spirit Mask' from Gabon, displaying flat surfaces with whitened heart-shaped faces each with a triangular nose, coffee-bean eyes and small or non-existent mouth; the two large carved horns represent the antelope. [No Reserve]
Provenance
From Gabon, West Africa.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
Footnotes
The faces are usually painted in white kaolin earth, a pigment associated by the Kwele with light and clarity, the two essential factors in the fight against evil. The Kwele occupy a great forest region on the borders of Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.
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