An outstanding Guerre/We Mask, borderdestrict Ivory Coast/Liberia, with rows of brass bells and colourful beads around the chin, full lips, a broard nose, framed by circular eyes in form of mirrors, on top a vessel for ritual medicine, the extrem weight of the "mask" and the handle shows us, that it wasn´t a face mask but rather a "head sculpture" that was waved during dance ceremonies of Gueerre or We hunting society, the mirrors have the function of blinding the animals of the forest with their mirror eyes and making them stop in order to kill them. The lst photos show the closed ritual vessel, incl. metal stand.

In comparison, Alain Michel Boyer, We, Visions of Africa, plate 7, the female ble zi mask (Song mask), which has a fuction in the female circumcision ceremony.

sold

Height incl. handle and metal stand: 67 cm
Weight: 4,4 kg incl stand