African Ekoi Bronze 1

This bronze comes from the Ekoi or Ejagham people of Nigeria. It depicts a woman or girl wearing a helmet mask which covers her entire head and features two faces facing opposite directions. The appendages atop the head, called 'horns,' would be made of bundles of hair wrapped in leather shrunken in water to make them tight. Such masks are worn for funerals, festivals, and initiation cereonies welcoming young girls into adulthood. Ekoi bronzes are cast in the traditional lost wax method in which the mold must be destroyed after each casting. Because of this, no two Ekoi bronzes are identical. It measures 15 inches tall and 10 inches wide including the horns. - FREE US SHIPPING