Tsaye Mask (Teke)

Tsaye (Teke) mask. Republic of Congo, ex-Congo Brazzaville, on the other bank of the Congo River, first half of the 20th century.
In carved wood.
Measurements: 43 cm. 53 cm. total height.

Mask made by the Teke ethnic group. Reduced to a circle with incisions that synthesize anthropomorphic features, the geometric line dominates over all figurative will, as it is usual in this type of magic-religious pieces.
Provenance: Pon's Collection (Europe), since early 1970s. Private European Collection, acquired from the above. On the back there is an old inscription in ink: "TekeTsayeMose nd jo Congo" (small village in the Teke region famous for the traditional religious ceremonies "Teke Tsaye" and this type of mask, as mentioned in several ethnological studies and exploration reports), undoubtedly written when it was collected "in situ".