Mask - Gabon (No reserve price)

African statues of lineage or clan chiefs in the tribal art of the Mbede, Mbete, or Ambete.

This version of the reliquary is characterized by the arrangement and rhythm of its colored planes and by the understated geometry of the facial features. The ancestor worship of onkani, among the Mbete, is surrounded by African figures such as this sculpture, whose dorsal cavity contains chick down and fragments of feathers. Matte patina, desiccation cracks, erosions.

The Mbete form a tribe in Gabon, on the border of the Middle Congo, neighboring the Obamba and the Pounou, whose history has been marked by a long-standing conflict with the Teke. They do not have a centralized political organization, and they practice ancestor worship.