About the lot N° 139
Title : A Fine And Rare Fang Mask, Gabon
Size : measurements note height 15 in. 38.1 cm Provenance :
Olivier le Corneur, ParisAcquired from Galerie Le Corneur et Roudillon, Paris, mid 1960sNotes : The Silbermann mask belongs to a small group of Fang masks that is distinguished by a heart-shaped facial plane, a flat crown (sometimes with holes for the insertion of feathers), and a curved frill-like extension following the neck of the dancer. Masks of this type were collected between 1907 and 1909 by Günter Tessmann (b. April, 2 1884 � d. November, 15 1969) on behalf of the Lübeck Museum für Völkerkunde during the famed Pangwe-expedition. As a result, the city acquired a sizable Fang collection which today numbers 150 objects. Tessmann's 700-page monograph Les Pahouins. Monographie ethnologique d'une tribu d'Afrique de l'ouest was first published in Berlin in 1913. As a summary of the results of the Pangwe-expedition it is an important historic document of the highest interest. For substantial excerpts from the text see Musée Dapper (1991: 167-312). For a closely related mask by the same hand formerly in the Egon Guenther Collection, Johannesburg, see Sotheby's, New York, November 18, 2000, lot 82. Another mask in the same style but covered with a layer of kaolin and decorated with metal tacks is in the collection of the city of Lübeck, Germany. This mask shows an almost identical treatment of jaw, nose, forehead and crown and is comparable also for the incised decoration on the temples and on the frill-like protrusion. Related in style, however without frill-like protrusion, is also the famous mask formerly in the collection of George Braque and photographed in the artist's studio in 1911, cf. Musée Dapper (1991: 84). Sotheby's, auctioneer
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Sale title : African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art
Sale date : 17 May 2007
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
