Rare helmet mask "degele" · Côte d'Ivoire, Senufo, "Second Master of Lataha", Korhogo Region, Village Lataha · ID: 3044730
Mark Eglinton, New York, USA
Description
wood, rep./ partly renewed
The mask type was first discovered in 1939 in a village near Korhogo.
It only appears in pairs and comes out for the “Great Funeral” - “kuumo”, an all-community festival to commemorate the important elders who have died over a four- or five-year period.
The masquerade couple and their escorts encircle the entire village, a fusion of image and act that symbolizes the continuity between the living and the multiple ancestral dead, and honors those village men and women recently “initiated” into the realm of the dead.
The object Rare helmet mask “degele” with the object ID 3044730 was last part of the auction 90.I Tribal Art and 90.II Contemporary Native American Art at November 17, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 157 achieved a sales price of EUR 15,000.
You can find more Masks and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.
Comparing literature
Schmalenbach, Werner (Hg.), Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Barbier-Mueller, Genf, München 1988, p. 84
Publications
AHDRC: 0072765