Lot 130

Dogon Mask
Of hollowed rectangular form, deep inset squared pierced eyes, tapering tubular pierced nose with ridge running to top of forehead and pointed ears to the sides.
Mask surmounted by a kneeling female figure with a tall rectangular body, full breasts square shoulders, and arms resting gently to top of thigh’s the elongated neck supporting the helmet-shaped head. She is guarded either side by two nommo’s fine aged and heavily encrusted surface. Formally in the collection of Pierre Harter Purchased Piasa Sale June 7th 1999. Marcel Griaule (1898 – 1956) a French anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people, gives an account of sanctuaries where a large amount of masks lay given up. The reasons for this are not clearly defined. The abandonment of a mask could be the consequence of an event during the performance of the mask or as a result of actions by the owner. A new mask was then carved and the old mask was retired to the cemetery of the masks. This important Dogon mask was either placed in safe sanctuary or it was condemned to disappear into dust. Very few masks of the archaic time survived. A mask identical to this one is published in Meauze, Pierre. “L’Art Negre” (Paris 1967) from the collection of Kamer in Cannes. The stylistic comparison between these two masks suggests that this specimen is the ancestor of that in the Kamer collection.
H.660mm, W.210mm.
Realised: $24,622 March 2011
Provenance: From the Collection of Merton D. Simpson. Piasa Sale June 6, 1999 P.V. No. 333. Formerly in the Collection of Pierre Harter.

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