1938.15.13

Collection type

Object

Description

Face mask representing a deer from a Okorosia play. [ZM 08/04/2013].

Long description

Face mask representing a deer from a Okorosia play. Oval shaped carved wooden face mask with plain black colouring on the outer face. Holes for eyes. Carved projections representing downward pointing horns and upward pointing ears. Slight incised carving for the nose and mouth. There is a row of holes all around the edge of the mask. Roughly carved on the inner face. [ZM 08/04/2013]

Geographical reference

Nigeria

Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria

Southern Nigeria

Cultural groups

Igbo

Person

Field collector Gwilym Iwan Jones

PRM source Gwilym Iwan Jones

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1937

Date collected

1937

Acquisition information

Donated: 1938

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted, Process Incised, Process Perforated

Dimensions

Depth 75 mm, Length 200 mm, Width 160 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1938.15.13

Research and responses

For the donor's description of the Okorosia play in the 1930s when this mask entered the Museum collections see Jones, G.I., 'Okorosia' (by 'Daji'), Nigerian Field Volume 3 No. 4, pp 175-177 (October 1934) [ZM 02/05/2013]

For a description of the Okorosia masquerade (also known as Okoroshi, Okorosh or Okorosi) during the 1980s see pp 186-204 in Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, by Herbert M. Cole and Chike C. Aniakor (Los Angeles: University of California Museum of Cultural History, 1984). [ZM 10/07/2013]

Search terms: Mask