LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 June African & Oceanic Art Auction #645  / 

48238

Lula (?) (Dem Rep of Congo)Face Mask

Currency:USD Category:Antiques / Ethnographic Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
Lula (?) (Dem Rep of Congo)Face Mask
<B>Lula (?) (Democratic Republic of Congo)</B></I><BR>Face Mask<BR>Wood, pigment, laundry bluing, metal<BR>Height: 16 1/4 inches Width: 10 inches Depth: 4 3/8 inches<BR><BR>Other than this example, for which publication information is listed below, the only similar published mask located is one in the Stanley Collection at the University of Iowa (Christopher D. Roy. <I>Art and Life in Africa. Selections from the Stanley Collection.</B></I> Iowa City: The University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1985, p.131). In his text on the Iowa mask, Roy, after discussing the tribal attribution problems, gives the origin of that mask tentatively to the Lula. Roy cites Arthur Bourgeois as feeling "that the function of the object may have been similar to <I>kakungu</B></I> among the Yaka: 'To prevent witches, the baloki, from entering the (initiation) camp and causing harm to the initiates…'" (Christopher D. Roy, <I>loc. cit.</B></I>). The wearer saw through a series of holes punched around the arced eye shapes. The mask shows many years of wear, which has resulted in surface stains and minor chips and cracks around the edges. A thin metal, tear-shaped overlay is missing from the proper-left cheek. There is a gnawing loss at the proper left end of the back flange.<BR><BR>Provenance: Marc Leo Félix, Brussels<BR>David and Bonnie Ross,Indianapolis<BR>Dr. Wally and Brenda Zollman, Indianapolis<BR>David and Bonnie Ross, Indianapolis<BR><BR>Published: Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter. <I>African Art in American Collections. Survey 1989.</B></I> Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, p. 383, fig. 979, attributed to the Tsotso.<BR><BR><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Requires 3rd Party Shipping (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
Sign In to Bookmark Lot