Antique Kasai Pende Circumcision Mask From Survey Zairian Art Bronson Collection

  
This is an antique Pende tribally made and used carved wood circumcision mask with a triangular human head surmounted by knife-like appendages and which is decorated with plant fiber raffia and pigment and which exhibits symbolic scarification marks on the face and which has been displayed in prominent museums and is pictured in a book. Mask was collected in the Congo, Africa. A photo of this exact specimen appears on page 142 in the book. A survey of Zairian art: the Bronson Collection written by? Joseph Cornet with help from the consultant for the exhibition James M. Silberman and which was p. Ublished by North Carolina Museum of Art in 1978. The book A survey of Zairian art. Is a catalog of an exhibition which was held at: North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, April 23, 1978-June 4, 1978; Museum of African Art, Washington, D. July 25, 1978-September 25, 1978; Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, November 14, 1978-January 21, 1979. Measuring just the wood of this mask it measures 12 1/2 inches long from the tip of one symbolic knife blade to the bottom of the chin by 3 1/2 inches wide. With the raffia included in the measurements this piece measures 21. Inches long from the tip of one symbolic knife blade to the bottom of the raffia and 9 inches wide. This antique Pende mask has a black metal stand with a black wood base which displays it handsomely.

This mask is in good condition with some wear to the pigments, wood and raffia and it has what I believe to be a very faint. Old collection number inscribed on the wood inside lower back of the mask. I have had this piece in my personal collection for 10 years. This item is in the category "Antiques\Ethnographic\African\Masks". The seller is "mountainamma" and is located in this country: US.

This item can be shipped to United States, Canada.

• Tribe: Pende
• Original/Reproduction: Original
• Maker: Pende
• Material: Wood