Lot: 164

82nd Tribal Art Auction

Zoomorphic mask

Cameroon, Mambila

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Ketterer, Munich, 4 May 1979, lot 154
Hans Dietrich Rielau, Hösbach, Germany
Heinz Kolerski, Fellbach, Germany
H: 40.6 inch sold

wood, encrusted patina, black and white paint, two holes to hold decorative material, rest. (breakage at the snout), small missing parts, traces of abrasion;
many objects of Mambila art are associated with the seasonal cycles of planting and harvesting and the cult of ancestors whose material abode is the guarded shrine of every family compound. The masks and statues were kept hidden from the eyes of the women in crochet nets inside the shrine.


Wittmer, Marcilene, Cameroon, Charlotte 1977p. 31, ill. 45 a
Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst in Deutschen Privatsammlungen, München 1973, p. 248, ill. 349; Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst, München 1975, p. 176, ill. 246