ClassificationsAfrican Art

Crest Mask

Place CreatedCameroon, Africa

Datelate 19th Century

Credit LineGift of the Art History Department, the Institute for African Studies, and the Michael C. Carlos Museum in honor of Dr. Sidney Littlefield Kasfir

Dimensions24 x 9 x 8 in. (61 x 22.9 x 20.3 cm)

Object number2010.040.001

Label TextThe mask was originally part of a male-female pairing that danced at annual harvest festivals and funerals in praise of the community's ancestors. The tall cap represented indicates it is a male character symbolizing the founding ancestor of the Tikar royal lineage. The mask, designed to be worn on top of a dancer's head, still retains parts of the raffia basketry frame used to secure the mask to the wearer and from which fabric was suspended to hide the dancer's face. Dating to the 19th Century, it left Africa in the early 20th Century and then passed between several collections in the United Kingdom and United States before coming to Emory.

Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2011.

ProvenanceWith Peter Wengraf [Arcade Gallery], London, England. With Charles Davis [The Davis Gallery], New Orleans, Louisiana, from late 1970s-early 1980s. Purchased by MCCM from Charles Jones African Art, Wilmington, North Carolina.

Status

Not on view

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