Elephant mask
D. R. Congo, Luba
sold
EUR 2,000
Provenance
Sotheby’s London, 23 June 1981, Lot 123Size
L: 32 cm
H: 14,5 cm
L: 12.6 inch
H: 5.7 inch
Description
wood, base
Luba elephant masks are rare and their use is obscure.
An early example was collected by Charles Lemaire in 1898 and has been in the holdings of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, since 1899 (AHDRC 0031038). Lemaire was able to capture a masked dancer in a leopard skin and with a spear in his hand in a photograph (AHDRC 0031038-003). He believed that they were war masks.
Joseph Maes (1924) speculated that they might even have been worn in battle. William Burton (1961), on the other hand, assumed that these masks were worn by members of an “Elephant Society”.