Lot: 200

89e vente aux enchères Tribal Art

Masque facial anthropomorphe "tankagle"

Côte d'Ivoire, Dan

Provenance Taille Prix d’appel / Prix d'Estimation
Emil Storrer, Zurich, Switzerland H: 22,5 cm Cet objet n’est plus disponible.

wood, eyes damaged along lower rim (probably once narrow with metal borders)


"Tankagle" means something close to "dancing miming masquerade". They entertain the spectators with various beautiful dances, and sometimes they perform short skits or songs. "Tankagle" wears "komo", a bonnet-like cap with applied decorations including the "bla ka", a strip of goat skin covered with cowrie shells. The costume consists of of a pair of trousers with a skirt of bast fibre. The mask dancers wear leg rattles and hold calebash rattles in their hands.


Fischer, Eberhard & Hans Himmelheber, Die Kunst der Dan, Zürich 1976, p. 61, ill. 26; Fischer, Eberhard & Hans Himmelheber, The Arts of the Dan in West Africa, Zurich 1984, p. 29, ill. 28