A female Bamana antelope headdress, Ci Wara, plated with sheets of brass, cowrie shells and fabrics.

LaGamma, Alisa, Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003:109, Bamana, the Art of Existance, Jean-Paul Colleyn (ed.), Rietberg Museum Zürich, Museum for African Art New York, 2001: 201 - 233

"The famous Ci-wara antelope-headdresses, objects of rare elegance, are among the world´s best known pieces of African Art. And ever since Captain Archinard´s shipment to the Musée d´Ethnographie du Trocadero in 1882 0f one such specimen, thousands of other Ci-wara exemplares have been acquired by private collectors and public institutions around the world. Pascal Imerato has provided a useful summary of the two main style-divisions os "Ci-wara heads: "There exist two pricipal sorts of Tyi Wara Koun among the Bamana: The vertical and the horicontal. Within these groups one finds several sub-styles. The vertical forms are encountered in the East of Bamana country; the horizontal in the West." Imperato 1970

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Height: 32 cm