Lot: 116

75th tribal art auction

Mask "kagle"

Côte d'Ivoire, Kran

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Maria Wyss, Basel, Switzerland
Auktionshaus Vogler, Basel, 17.5.2001, lot 46
Eduard Hess, Oberwil, Switzerland
H: 12.2 inch sold

wood, spotty, partly encrusted patina, remains of fur, projecting cheeks, tubular eyes, protruding mouth, pierced around the rim, rep. (forehead), traces of abrasion, missing parts;
important requisites of the mask figure were bundles of hooked branches, used to annoy the audience. According to the hooked branch "ka" the mask is called "kagle". The mask figures used to wear a wig of shreds or cotton threads and a puffed raffia fiber skirt. Its function is to enrage the audience, which is why the dancer annoys the people with wooden sticks.


Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Lexikon Afrikanische Kunst und Kultur, München, Berlin 1994, p. 119