IGBO MASK NIGERIA carved wood and pigment, the oval face with open mouth exposing the teeth, bands of scarification running vertical to the pierced eyes, the forehead with raised concentric circles, detailed in black, topped with a figure seated upon a stool (33cm tall) Footnote: Provenance: Julien Harris (1910 - 2011), Scotland. Acquired in situ 1930, thence by descent. This piece was acquired on a journey across West Africa that Harris undertook in 1930 alongside Geoffrey Gorer and Francois (Feral) Benga, a research trip which culminated in the book "Africa Dances". Benga was a Senegalese dancer at the Folies Bergère in Paris; known at the time as the male Josephine Baker and an icon of the Harlem Renaissance. Gorer, on the back of this work, went on to become a prominent anthropologist.