Ngwo Igbo Headdress, Nigeria
13” tall by 10” wide
wood, metal, rope/string, pigment
ex Robert Banks
ex Ambassador Kenneth L. Brown
ex Jacques Gansler
* sold with custom mount
A very dynamic and very expressive mask/headdress with great exaggerated features. I refer to it as “Mr Burns” from the Simpsons because there is a very uncanny resemblance.
Masks/headdresses like this were most likely used in the Ichaholo masquerade by the Ngwo Igbo of northern Nigeria although this form does appear in a wide array of Igbo-complex masquerades. According to Herbert (Skip) Cole it is from the area just west and north of Enugu, and its very large nose suggests it may have caricatured a white person.
They weren’t worn over the face, but instead were worn on the forehead and attached to the wearer’s head and costume with rope/string attached to the nails. There is an intentional hole in the top section of the headdress where something would have been placed in protruding from the headdress.
SOLD $1200 plus shipping
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