Lot: 223

Online Auction

Rare calabash face mask "mbubu"

Nigeria, Igbo-Afikpo

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Eric Robertson, New York, USA H: 13 inch sold

pumpkin, plant fibre, clay-like mass, colour pigments (yellow and red ochre, kaolin), base

Only a few specimens of these gourd masks are found in museums or private collections. For a similar object that is located in the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, see African Heritage Documentation & Research Centre, no. 0095473.


Dagan, Esther A., The African Calabash, New York 1988