This is the rating and price for A Dan Mask, 1993.0

Description : height 18in of exceptional form with elaborately braided fiber and hair coiffure and a braided fiber beard with bells along the base of the chin. Provenance: Barry Kitnick, Los Angeles Saul & Marsha Stanoff, Los Angeles For a discussion on a similar mask in the Barbier-Muller Collection, see Hahner, Kecskesi and Vajda, page 32, The Dan are farming peple who inhabit the hinterland of western Ivory Coast and Liberia. They have a great number of masked figures who represent spirits of the bush, and fulfill a variety of social, political, and religious functions. According to Eberhard Fischer and Hans Himmelheber, eleven types of Dan masks can be distinguished by formal criteria. This does not imply, however, that the types can be associated with specific functions, because the meanings of masks change over time. This mask [the Barbier-Muller example relating to the mask presented here], with its dark patina, originated from the northern Dan. This is indicated by the carefully hollowed and smoothed interior, as well as by the oval face with its finely carved features, high forehead, raised eyebrows, and strongly protruding mouth with full lips. Circular eye holes that permit unhindered vision on the part of the wearer are characteristic of the racer mask (gunye ge) and the fire mask (zakpei ge), two subordinate mask types used by the northern Dan. [...] As a rule, racer and fire masqueraders wear a scarf over their head which, in some cases, is decorated with leaves or a piece of sheepskin. If masks have fiber wigs these are entirely concealed. Since the present [Barbier-Muller] mask [as well as the mask presented here] is equipped with an extremely artfully woven hood, Marie-Noël Verger-Fèvre suggests that it might be one of the powerful go ge, or king's masks, which appeared in public only on very solemn occasions. For further discussion Mary H. Nooter, Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals, Munich, 1993, cat. 68, p. 149
Price: 0.00 USD It's free to register now to view!
Estimate (low-high) : 30000 USD-40000 USD It's free to register now to view!

Details