Rare male headdress "ndim" · Cameroon, Tikar · ID: 3047155
Ketterer, Munich, 18 November 1978, Lot 188
presumably Robert Jacobsen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Knud Nielsen, Jelling, Denmark
Description
wood, pigments, base
One of the few known headpieces of this species (ex Arthur Speyer) is published by Northern, Washington D.C., 1984, p. 171 (AHDRC 0011138).
She reports that these masks appeared at annual harvest dances and at death celebrations in praise of the ancestors. This was confirmed by Timmermans, who observed during a stay in Tikar, that the masks were worn by members of the ruling families at the so-called “ngiga” or “nganga-dance”, a funeral dance that took place at the end of the mourning-period.
They are said to have always appeared in pairs, male and female, as embodiment of the founding ancestors of the royal lineage. The masks are said to have been called “ndim-yang” (“ndim” = male) and “mih”-yang" (“mih” = female).
The object Rare male headdress “ndim” with the object ID 3047155 was last part of the auction 95th Tribal Art Auction at October 24, 2020 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 106 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,500.
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Comparing literature
Northern, Tamara, The Art of Cameroon, Washington D.C. 1984, p. 171, ill. 104
Publications
Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst in Deutschen Privatsammlungen, München 1973, p. 287, ill. 410; Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst, München 1975, p. 198, Fig. 285
AHDRC: 0011136