However, it is not quite as much fun. Placed alongside John's mask, it shows just how the personalities of individual masks can vary, all the while maintaining a common tribal identity.
I was told that this one served for initiation ceremonies in a secret society. It heavily charged, even for an Igbo mask, being cluttered with seedpods, bones, shells, jawbones, a monkey skull (ominously smashed in), a shotgun cartridge, bells, coins, beads, cowries, and other accessories. A dried duck head with string-articulated beak is mounted on the upper temples, and behind it, between two wickedly spiraling horns, stands a miniature masculine figure, typically Igbo.
The mask's face is decorated with the distinctive Igbo crescent, intersecting at the eye. The upper half of the crescent is black, the lower red. This dichotomy is repeated on the mouth, the upper lip being black, the lower red. The person who sold me the mask said that red was uncommon on Igbo masks and that it
indicated human sacrifice. Whatever the case, when dancing, with its full costume, to firelight and drums, this mask must have been a fearful sight.
The mask itself, oval in form, is attached by a sort of hinge of sacking to a bigger, perfectly spherical hemisphere of wood that is the real support, being in fact a cimier. The inside is skillfully lined with sacking, and a cloth ring provides padding for the
dancer's head. The whole is held in place by a strap of woven fibre and a wooden peg that fits under the wearer's chin.
As to the mask's age, an expert in coins or shotgull cartridges might be able to set at least a lower limit on its vintage, supposing that it is not an old mask redecorated more recently, but my guess is that it is not particularly old.
If any members would like to add facts or guesses about this piece, (what is the significance of the duck-head, for ex?) I would be pleased to hear them.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Serge Kelvin