Zoomorphic mask "bolu" · Côte d'Ivoire, Guro · ID: 3034778
Osram Family Collection, Germany
Description
light brown wood, painted in black and white, snout with short trunks, rhomb emblem, adorned with jags and notches, min. dam., small missing parts (tip of the right tusk), slight traces of abrasion, metal socle;
belonging to the “dye” mask ensemble, whose meaning is not entirely settled until today. The animal masks “bohi” the goat, “glo”, “zuin” and “kla” three different types of antelopes, “bolu” the hippo, “bi” the elephant, “blin” the dog and “du” the buffalo appear at the beginning of the masquerade forming a kind of advance guard. They are said to prepare the place for dancing.
The object Zoomorphic mask “bolu” with the object ID 3034778 was last part of the auction 73rd tribal art auction at May 25, 2013 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 191 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,600.
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Comparing literature
Fischer, Eberhard, Guro, Masks, München, Berlin, London, New York 2008, p. 124, ill. 101