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Dancer's mask
Object Number 31-22-50/B5004
Display Title Dancer's mask
Descriptions
Object Description Dancer's mask - Helmet mask with curved, trunk-like headdress appendage, skin face flap, and features constructed from beads, shells and stuffed textile appliqués. Constructed from split cane framework covered with plant fiber and cotton textiles and decorated with geometric patterns formed with dark blue, light blue, yellow and white glass beads and cowry shells, raffia fringe along bottom edge.
Inventory Description Mask, helmet style, open at neck, woven fiber cloth base, blue and red cloth at crown of head, hide panel at front, two oval perforations in hide below decorative eyes, fiber fringe at lower edge of face, fiber ears and nose covered with dark patterned cloth, nose decorated with colored glass beads and cowrie shells, eyes and eyebrows composed of shell and beads, head nearly covered with cowrie shells and colored beads, beads arranged in linear and geometric designs, curved extension protrudes from center top of head, extension curves downward in front of face, extension decorated with beads and cowrie shells, extension ends at tassel of beads and cowrie shells
Classification
  • Mask
Department Ethnographic
Culture
  • Luba
Geography/Provenience/Site Name
Africa / Belgian Congo
Materials Glass, Cowrie, Cloth, Cane, Raffia, Bast, Textile, Skin
Dimensions Overall (on storage mount): 48 × 33 × 39 cm (18 7/8 × 13 × 15 3/8 in.)
Quantity 1
Label on object 31-22-50/B5004
Credit Line Museum Purchase, Mary Hemenway Fund, 1931

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