Rare zoomorphic mask "gugwom" (Crocodile?) · Nigeria, Northern Benue, Montol (Goemai) · ID: 3042821

Name: Rare zoomorphic mask "gugwom" (Crocodile?)
SKU: 3042821
Availability: Discontinued

not available anymore

Size

H: 60,5 cm

H: 23.8 inch

Description

wood, brown patina, camwood powder, helmet-shaped corpus with elongated open snout, teeth and forehead crest marked by jags, drilled holes in pairs on each side, slightly dam., minor missing parts (crest, left side of the head), traces of insect caused damage (underside of the snout), crack, base.
The mask was worn horizontally on the head. Arnold Rubin (1988) reported that the mask type appeared on harvest festivities and chiefly burials.

The object Rare zoomorphic mask “gugwom” (Crocodile?) with the object ID 3042821 was last part of the auction 87th Tribal Art Auction at November 11, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 304.

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Comparing literature

Berns, Marla C. et. al., Arts of the Benue River Valley, Los Angeles 2011, p. 343, ill. 10.46 Wittmer, Marcilene K. & William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria, Atlanta 1978, p. 94, ill. 219

Africa

Masks