Sepik, Papua New Guinea, 1960
Hardwood
Height 13 1/4 inches (33.7 cm)
Provenance: Melbourne trade
The face is carved as a long oval, the brow and nose running down it as a single unbroken ridge to a narrow tip, with the eyes cut as slender lenses to either side, a small mouth set low toward the chin, and white and ochre pigment worked along the temples and beside the eyes. Masks of this form belong to the Sepik River of northern Papua New Guinea, where they were bound to the gables of ceremonial houses, to yam displays and to basketry and fibre figures rather than worn on the face, and the pierced lug at the crown with its answering hole at the base is what secured them. It came through the Melbourne trade.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Sepik, Papua New Guinea, 1960
Hardwood
Height 13 1/4 inches (33.7 cm)
Provenance: Melbourne trade
The face is carved as a long oval, the brow and nose running down it as a single unbroken ridge to a narrow tip, with the eyes cut as slender lenses to either side, a small mouth set low toward the chin, and white and ochre pigment worked along the temples and beside the eyes. Masks of this form belong to the Sepik River of northern Papua New Guinea, where they were bound to the gables of ceremonial houses, to yam displays and to basketry and fibre figures rather than worn on the face, and the pierced lug at the crown with its answering hole at the base is what secured them. It came through the Melbourne trade.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Image 1 of 5
Image 2 of 5
Image 3 of 5
Image 4 of 5
Image 5 of 5