Mask - Wood - Mwana Po - Chokwe - Congo DRC

TCHOKWE - Mwana Pwo Mask - Congo Angola border.
DRC, Angola- Mid 20th century - Good condition-Provenance Private collection Antwerp, the previous owner bought it at Amberes in the 1990's.

The Chokwe are well known for art objects produced to celebrate and validate the royal court.

A fine female dance mask Mwana PWO, tribe of the Chokwe, D.R. Congo, Angola

Very expressive dance mask which represent the ideal type of woman Mwana PWO.
Artful coiffure of fibers, colored with Tokula powder.
Mwana Pwo mask with beautiful brownish patina.
The scarification marks, which may duplicate those of the actual woman whose beauty inspired the carver, include the cingelyengelye design on the forehead. This cruciform design was probably derived from tin pendants traded into the Chokwe region by Portuguese voyagers as early as the seventeenth century.

Dimensions : Height 21cm, on its stand 29 cm.
Material: mask carved from hardwood, mask face brownish black sweating layered patina.
Condition: Perfect condition. Slight smoke smell. Wood, rope, white kaolin (inside the mouth). Red tokula powder.
Estimated Age: Mid-XXth.
Illustration: Chokwe_Angolan Pwo performer-Henrique-Carvalho-1890-245