African Tribal Antiques- JFD Collection
Exclusive African Art
African Tribal Antiques- JFD Collection
Exclusive African Art
This very famous luba mask of a “homme fauve” ( a possible translation would be “lion man”) has a little brother! The attached photos demonstrate that the same sculpteur did (at least) two of them. One was taken to Europe long time ago and went into the most prestigious collections, was very well maintained, even possibly restored. The second one, a bit smaller, which may have been done to replace the first one, is in the collection of JFD.
JFD is convinced that it is not an elaborate copy for two reasons:
First the overall condition indicates that it was poorly maintained, probably left in some kind of bag with other objects, and it stayed unattended for years. It would be difficult for a fake maker to copy this type of poor maintenance. They can do termites damage, they can leave an object for a year or two in sand with goats above providing dampness… They can do a few other tricks, but a regular aging without maintenance, and without major damage, would be difficult to imitate.
But the main argument is the hairs. The “homme fauve” described in the monography by Julien Volper, under fig. 11 has holes around the eyes and many other places where hairs were implanted. Those hairs, or fibers of some kind, may have rotten with time or started to fall, and they have been cut, or rather burned, at the level of the wood surface (see attached photos).
The same thing is found on JFD’s piece. He doubts that any fake maker in his right mind would take the time, and have the skill to put the hairs in place and then cut them!
In addition, some of the designs are similar, not identical, like for example the lines on the forehead and the cheeks, as if the sculpteur remembered the first mask but not all the details.
