Some masks, some questions

Of these three mask I think the last one is probably not African, and I have no real idea of the origins of the first two, just that they do seem to have some age and be more than usually creepy.













Comments or comparables welcome

 

I'm mask-ignorant but couldn't help but notice the absence of indications of usage in at least the 1st and 3rd ones.

 

MY EYES! MY EYES!!!

 

I agree,but I love the 1st and 3rd one.

 

All 3 are African.....the 1st & 3rd are tourist pieces , & may be from the 80's.
The 2nd looks older , and has the mojo, but will require I dig deeper than these hurried observations.
What does the tag on the rear say ?

Don't we have a couple of newer Africa specialists here now ??
I'll wait for Taupou to chime in , & go do some searching.

1 & 3 are easy to identify .......back with that later....

 

I think the second one is from one of the Pacific islands, but I don't know a darned thing about masks. Numbers one and three do look like tourist souvenirs though - no signs of usage at all. They are however good tourist pieces.

 

The first one (white face) is Pongwe, from Gabon. Middle one is Guerre-Wobe, from Liberia. Last one is Baule, from Ivory Coast.

I'd agree, they are fairly recent, but, with the possible exception of the last one, all do exhibit all the traditional characteristics of the particular mask they are depicting.

The last one is geared more toward the casual tourist who wants a souvenir that they could possibly display on their wall. The other two are contemporary carvings of traditional masks.

 

Thank you taupou

 

The Guerre could be Ivory Coast.....they kinda sit on the border with Liberia.

But it's one I'm least familiar with...

 

A few years ago I sold an Ivory Coast mask on ebay. The idiot robot would not let me call the mask Ivory Coast, but the monolingual idiot thing let me have Cote d'Ivoire.

 

(LOL) I've had my own run-ins with the idiot bot. It took down a letter opener recently because I wasn't specific enough about the species of cow the bone came from. Uhmm, last I looked there was only one.

 

Try something with a swatica!!