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 A Guro mask of oval, hollowed form with a carfully carved Kalao on top, blackened, shiny patina, traces of age and ritual use. May be an early Guro mask of Sabu bi Boti, or from his father Sabu. In any case the stylistic similarity to the work of Boti is amazing. We don´t know if Boti has students or a workshop around him. All that is known is that Himmelheber already knew Boti, so it is assumed that the carver also carved unpainted masks for ritual use only in his early years. In his essay, however, Fischer only shows colorfully painted masks, which the carver probably also sold to the French administration and early tourists. It would be interesting to know whether he also produced masks with a dark patina for exclusively ritual use. If this were the case, these masks would be extremely rare. Stylistically, however, there is a great similarity to the well-known works of this outstanding carver.
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 photo: wolfgang-jaenicke.com, for more information, please write us an e-mail with the identification number of the photo identification no. _PTW6069.jpg |
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