Lot: 395

Staff crowning with four mask faces

Angola, Chokwe

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Erwin & Susanne Melchardt, Vienna, Austria H: 8.1 inch 5000 EUR / 10000 EUR

wood, surface treated with wax / oil, base

Artfully carved head piece of a sceptre or dignitary staff "mbweci". Here in a rare version with four masked faces instead of just one head or Janus-shaped. Bastin commented on a staff crowning with five heads: "This sceptre may represent a chief's lineage" (Bastin, 1982, p. 192, fig. 112).


Bastin, Marie-Louise, La sculpture Tshokwe, Gossau 1982