Female mask with labre · Tanzania, Makonde · ID: 3053580
Starting price
EUR 3,000
Estimated price
EUR 6,000
Provenance
Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, Germany, 6 December 1986, lot 448Arno Henseler, Munich, Germany
Size
H: 23,5 cm
H: 9.3 inch
Description
wood, pigments, metal sheet, resin-like mass, cord, base
According to Weule (1908) masks of the Makonde represent ghosts (“midimu”). This mask is identified as female type by the lip peg “pelele”.
The masks generally appeared at the end of circumcision rites, when the young boys and girls returned from the bush camps.
The masquerades fulfilled ritual as well as educational functions.
Comparing literature
Weule, Karl, Wissenschaftliche Ergebisse meiner ethnographischen Forschungsreise in den Südosten Deutsch-Ostafrikas, Berlin 1908, p. 112