Makonde face mask, unusual form, estate purchase

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A boldly-carved, geometrically-stylized face mask from the Makonde people of Tanzania. Most of the Makonde masks you see on the market are helmet-masks, which are generally produced by the portion of the group that lives in Mozambique. The Makonde of Tanzania make face masks, which are rarer. In both cases, the masks' primary purpose is to be used in the ceremonies initiating young men into manhood. The labret in this mask's upper lip indicates that it's meant to represent a woman, though it would have been worn by a young male initiate. The forms of this piece are simple, but they are carved with a decisiveness that testifies to the sculptor's virtuosity: the volumes are all beautifully balanced and very crisply rendered. I bought this piece from an estate-sale picker in Pittsburgh. It measures 10 inches high, 7 inches across and 4 inches deep. The stand is for photography only, and is not included in the sale.About Me and My Selling PhilosophyI have been collecting African art for more than a decade. Over the years, my collection has gotten too large for the available space, and I've discovered I get more pleasure selling things to others who appreciate them than keeping a growing pile of interesting stuff in the basement.My inventory is carefully selected from the offerings of generalist antique dealers, fellow collectors, estate re-sellers and "pickers" in the United States and Europe. Aside from a few rare exceptions (well-made contemporary masquerades, signed works of modern art, etc.), I do not buy pieces recently arrived from Africa, since my primary interest is in wooden masks and figures from the colonial period (1880-1960 or so). I understand the value of provenance to collectors in this field, and therefore always seek to provide as much information as possible about an object's previous ownership history.Like anyone who regularly buys this kind of material through the internet, I get a dud from time to time, but that's on me. Each piece I choose to list here is, to my eye, aesthetically worthwhile -- either authentically used in-culture or, for example in the case of some colonial pieces or objects with earlier collection dates, at least interesting and well-made. Each object, in other words, is something I would keep for myself if my house were bigger and my wife less opposed to clutter. I strive to make my photographs as good as possible, in order to give bidders maximum confidence in what I offer.In terms of pricing, I do not want to keep listing pieces month after month at high prices in hopes they may one day sell, all the while watching them lose value as they go unsold. This means many buyers have received real bargains from me in the past. There are pieces I have sold on Ebay for a few hundred dollars that have turned up in European auctions with estimates north of 2000 Euros. Given the number of bargains I've found for myself in my own decade of collecting, I am happy to spread the good fortune around! There are few other forms of art where one can get so much aesthetic power for such a small amount of money, and I enjoy helping pieces get to homes where they will be valued, even when those homes, like mine, have modest budgets.The RulesInternational bidders are welcome, but I require that theyIf payment is not received within 7 days, I will initiate a non-payment case with Ebay and reserve the right to make a second-chance offer. read more

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