Lot: 159

102nd Auction

Zoomorphic mask "zamble"

Côte d'Ivoire, Guro

Provenance Size Starting price / estimated price
Constance McCormick Fearing Collection, Montecito / Santa Barbara, USA
H: 15.7 inch This object is not available anymore.

wood, colour pigments,

Together with "gu" (his beautiful wife) and "zauli" (his wild grotesque brother), "zamble" forms a sequence of three sacred masks. They are considered helper or tutelary spirits for the whole village where they are settled and regularly received offerings.

Zamble" has to perform when someone important from the clan had died, or if an affair of the village or an important family has to be given particular emphasis.


Fischer, Eberhard, Guro, Masks, Munich, Berlin, London, New York 2008, p. 168