Mask - Gabon (No reserve price)

The Punu African masks are distinguished by their elaborate hairstyles made of braided shells. This example of gentle symmetry is topped by a single shell that conforms to the contours of the face. Height, patina matte and abraded, desiccation cracks, brightness. The white masks of Gabon, itengi (pl. bitengi), were associated with the various secret societies of Gabon, including Bwiti, Bwete, and Mwiri ("to govern"), the latter stretching across several initiation levels, to which all Punu men belonged, and whose emblem was the crocodile (hence, for some, the dragon-skin scale motif). This object, an evocation of a deceased young woman, was displayed during the dance called Okuyi. These powerful secret societies, which also had a judicial function, included several dances, among them the Leopard Dance, Esomba, Mukuyi or Okuyi depending on the place, an acrobatic dance on stilts, remaining the most widespread. In some villages at dawn or dusk, Okuyi was accompanied by songs in an esoteric language that only initiates could understand. (Punu, L. Perrois