Zoomorphic mask ·  Guinea, Toma · ID: 3043501

Description

wood, dark encrusted patina, mirror glass, animal horns, cowrie snails, encrusted pieces of fabric, min. dam., traces of abrasion, cracks, small missing parts.
Only few figures of the Toma are known but there is a variety of masks which are used during the “poro” men’ s society ceremonies. They can be categorized into three main types, the male “landa”, the female “nyangbai”, and finally the “horned masks”.
The Loma, or Toma, live on both sides of the Liberia/Guinea border. In Liberia they are known as Loma, while in Guinea they are known as Toma. The two names are respectively English and French renderings of the same name but reflect differences in both European orthography and regional dialects.

The object Zoomorphic mask with the object ID 3043501 was last part of the auction 88th Tribal Art Auction at March 10, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 138 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,000.

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

Carini, Vittorio, The Toma/Loma masks, Udine 2009, p. 19 f.

Publications

Carey, Neil, Masks of the Koranko Poro, Amherst 2007, p. 49, ill. 30

AHDRC: 0076100