Cross River Mask Nigeria Copper alloy - 21,5... Lot 45

Cross River Mask Nigeria Copper alloy - 21,5 cm Provenance: Galerie Simonis, Düsseldorf European private collection The sculptures in copper alloy from the Cross River region date from the 17th to the 19th century. They mainly represent human figures, heads or animals and are all decorated with intricate patterns of concentric circles or spirals, and cord-like lines as the ones to be found on this mask. Remnants of this culture are exceedingly rare: amongst the noteworthy other pieces, we can mention three statuettes belonging to the Menil Collection in Houston, where the same distinctive decorative patterns can be found. Closer to the mask presented here are three small sculptures of heads. One belongs to the Musée du Quai Branly (former Barbier-Mueller collection), and two others belong to private collections. No other life-size masks from this region are known.