Ethnic Design- Decorative Night Society Mask, Grasslands, Cameroon.

Decorative Grassland Leopard skin Mask Private collection Brussels The raffia splint is covered with cloth and colourful miniature glass beads in vario...

Bamileke Kuosi Elephant masks comprise cloth panels and hoods woven from plantain fiber over raffia. On this background glass beads are stitched in geometric patterns. The basic form depicts salient features of the elephant—a long trunk and large ears. The hood fits tightly over the masker's head, and two hanging panels, one behind and one in front, partially conceal the body. The front panel is the elephant trunk, and the two large, stiff circles hinged to either side of the head are its ears, which flap as the masker dances. While the mask symbolizes an elephant, the face is human. Eyeholes provide visibility, and a nose and mouth with teeth are normally present. The glass beads used on these earlier masks were nineteenth-century trade beads of Venetian or Czechoslovakian manufacture, used as well in exchange for slaves. Elephant mask costumes...

This mid-twentieth century finely carved mask, from the Lega culture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displays the typically heart-shaped face of Lega 'Idimu' masks. Traces o...

Bring home a piece of ancestral heritage with this authentic Chokwe mask from Angola, crafted in the mid-20th century. Rooted in deep cultural tradition, Chokwe masks were once used ...