GALLERY
Don't hesitate to contact me at jeromeevans@sbcglobal.net if you would like to see additional photos or to have more information about any of these pieces.
War shield, Korowai people, West Papua, Indonesia; 76 " high;
wood and natural pigments. Field collected in the 1980s at Mabul Village.
This is a fine example of war shields still in use by the tree-dwelling Korowai, northeastern neighbors of the Asmat, in the 1980s. These shields were also hung in front of their tree houses so that their magical designs would protect the occupants sleeping inside (Shields of Melanesia, p.165)
Price: $6,000.
Here is an exceptionally handsome old Siletz basket from Oregon that very likely dates to the 1930s. It is 5 3/4" high and 8 1/2" in diameter and made of twined spruce root, hazel and beargrass. It is in excellent condition.
Price: $600.
This surely is as fine a man's purse from the Bontoc people of Northern Luzon, the Philippines, as you will see. It was collected by William Galvin in the 1950s and measures 5 1/2" high and 6 1/2" long. It is made of rattan and has four nested compartments.
Price: $325
A rare old lidded basket from Sumatra, Indonesia, dating to the 1930s. It is 13 1/2" high and made of rattan, wood and fiber and is in very good condition. The two carved figures
on the lid are unusual and suggest the original owner was as person of high status.
Price: $300.
This very large serving tray comes from the Tekuana people who live along the Cama River in Venezuela. It is 24" in diameter and made of plaited reed with a split vine rim. It is in very good condition.
"Practically all basketry trays are decorated with geometric patterns produced by plaiting brown and black tinted materials..." The diamond shaped design (on this tray) is called munyu, the name of the carnivorous piranha (Reichel-Dolmatoff, 1985).
Price: $ 95
Tapa cloth from Collingswood Bay, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It measures 53" x 29" and is in good condition, save for evident wear on the upper right corner in this photo.
Such pieces were given to new brides to be worn as skirts or used as bed covers. This one probably dates to the mid-20th century.
$200
This shallow basket comes from the Cayabil people who live
along the Xingu River in Brazil. It is 4" deep and 16 1/2" in
diameter and is made of rattan, dyed and natural. It was collected in the 1970s but is in very good condition.
Provenance: Collection of Daniel J. and Pearl Crowley.
Price: $45
Mukuyi mask of the Punu people of Gabon. It is 13" high and made of wood. Such masks used to appear in funeraal ceremonies of the Mukuyi and Okuyi societies representing ancestors, male or female (this one female) and worn by acrobatic dancers. More recently, they appear in village festivities (Meyer, African Forms).
Price: $600.
This is a Balinese dance mask for one of the characters in the Wayang Wong, the ancient stoies of the Ramayana that "nuture the belief that acts of courage, love and fidelity are rewarding and lead to individual fulfillment." The yellow color suggests that this was the mask of a discreet, wise and sympathetic character. (Slattum, 1992). This mask is 6" high and made of painted wood; it is in very good condition.
$225
Here is a "talipooon" or brideprice from the Yangoro Boiken peoples of Papua New Guinea. It consists of a woven fiber mask with traces of pigment attached to a green turban sea shell and is 14" high as shown. It was collected in the 1950s.
These objects were presented to a bride by her groom and then passed on to her brother, if she had one, who would in turn give it to his bride and so on.
Price: $500 with stand
Here is a very fine example of a portrait mask of the Yaure people of Burkina Faso. It dates to the 1950s and measures 9 1/2" high. It is in very good condition with only very minor loss at one eye and would make an important addition to any African art collection.
Price: $950.
Three very unusual and intriguing figures from the Adan people who live near Lake Volta in southeastern Ghana near the border with Togo. These figures are 9" to 10" high and made of wood. The Adan are a very small ethnic group that migrated from Ethiopia, fighting their way across Nigeria to Senegal and then back to Ghana.
Price: $150 each (with base) or three for $400.
Here is a well used old Ngala woman's paddle from Swagup or Kupkein villages on the upper stretch of the Middle Sepik River, Papua New Guinea. It is 64"long and has the customery preying mantis figure carved at the top.
These shorter paddles were usually used by the women who sat in the dugout canoes while paddling. Men stood while paddling and therefore had much longer paddles.
Price: $350
This is a very fine old maiden spirit (agbogho mmuo) maskof the Igbo people of Nigeria dating to the 1920s. It is 9 1/2" high, made of wood and pigments and in very good condition.
Such masks represent Igbo ideals of female beauty. The fine facial features and the white
coloring allude to spiritual beauty and moral purity
(Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, UCLA 1984)
Price: $2500 with custom stand.
Here is a very fine old bush cow headdress from Nigeria collected in the early 1930s. It is made of wood with a nice patina and measures 15" long.
Abstract wooden crests of this type are usually attributed to the Katana (formerly Mama), however, "essentially identical sculptures were used by other peoples living on ... the Jos Plateau" (Sculpture of Black Africa, The Paul Tishman Collection, 1968).
Price: $5,000 with custom stand Sale:3500.
This is a male Kpan dance mask of the Baule people of the Ivory Coast. It is 14" high and made of painted wood. These masks continue to be danced by the Baule, and this one probably dates to the 1980s. See Susan Vogel, African Art: Western Eyes, 1997.
Price: $250
This is an excellent example of 1920s-30s Hopi basketry from Second Mesa. It measures 6" high and 7 1/2" in diameter and is made of natural and dyed yucca coiled on a grass foundation. The dyes are tea plant (red), sunflower seeds (black) and sun-bleached yucca (yellow).
Price: $350 Sale: $250
A very nice old cut-pile prestige cloth from the Kuba peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It measures 36" x 20" and is made of natural and dyed raffia. These are wonderfully decorative pieces at very modest prices.
Price: $75
A handsome old Japanese ikebana (flower arranging) basket dating to the mid-1900s. It is made of smoked bamboo and measures 16" high and 10" in diameter.
It is in very good condition.
Price: $300
A superb old maiden mask (agbogho mmuo) people of Nigeria. It is 10" high and made of wood colored with kaolin and other pigments. It was collected in the 1920s-30s and is in very good condition for its age and use.
Relatively small maiden masks such as this were attached to colorful cloth & fiber costumes and were danced in complex sequences at a faster & faster
pace.
Price: $2500 with custom stand.
This mask comes from the Lega people of Zaire. It is 9" high (excluding the beard) and made of wood colored with kaolin and a fiber beard.
These masks belonged to the several grades of the Bwami Society. Wooden masks were the insignia of the lower gardes, ivory and bone masks the highest gardes.
Price: $200
A very fine old heddle pulley from the Jimini people of north-central Ivory Coast. It was collected by Dr. Daniel J. Crowley in the 1960s. It is 7" high and made of wood and pigments. On a custom stand, it is in very good condition for its age and use.
Heddle pulleys were important parts of the looms used by West African men to make their fine strip-woven cloths and were often viewed as objects of pride and prestige.
$895
This is a large and fine old Hopi basket from Second Mesa. It measures 10" high and 15" in diameter and
is made of natural and dyed yucca coiled on a bundle foundation. The design features two pairs of katsina faces, and it is in very good condition with only very minor stitch loss. $2200.
This is a large old Owens Valley Paiute bowl dating to the 1920s. It is 5" high and 15" in diameter and made of willow or bulrush and bracken fern root coiled on a three-rod foundation with a herringbone rim finish. It is in very good condition. $1500.
Sale: $1100.
Here is a old and beautifully carved Iban Dayak ceremonial paddle from Kalimantan (Borneo),
Indonesia. It is 51" long and 7" wide at the blade and has been carved from a dark hardwood. It is in excellent condition. $725
This large Tohono O'odham bowl dates to the early 20th century when Pima and Papago (as they were
once called) basket makers used the same materials and their baskets were much alike. It is 7 1/2 " high and 13 1/2" in diameter and made of willow and devil's claw coiled on a bear grass foundation. $795.
This small but very fine bowl was made by Gloria Kahe
(b. 1951), a Navajo woman who married into an important Hopi pottery-making family and soon began to make award-winning pottery of her own designs. It measures 3" high and 5 1/4" in diameter and is in excallent condition.
$395.
This is a kamana, or food serving bowl, from the Sawos people of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. It was collected in the 1950s at Koiwat Village. Made of carved clay, it is 6" deep and 15" in diameter and in very good condition.
Here the bowl with its many spirit faces is shown upside down as it would have been in a village house when not in use.
$450
Here is another Sawos kamana, this one painted with mineral pigments.
A similar piece, perhaps a bit older, is exhibited
at the de Young Museum in the Friede collection.
$450
.
Here is a fine old Washoe lidded bowl dating to the 1920s. It is made of willow and bracken fern coiled with an open stitch on a single-rod foundation. It measures 5 1/2" high and 9 1/2" in diameter and is in excellent condition with no darkening. I believe it can be attributed to Hettie George Barber. $675
This is a very nice small Hopi bowl from the 1940s with a very traditional design. It measures 4" high and 6" in diameter and is in very good condition save for two minor rim nicks.
$95.
Here is a nice old lidded, polychrome Washoe basket dating to the late 1920s-early 1930s. It is made of willow, bracken fern and redbud coiled with an open stitch on a single-rod willow foundation. Somewhat darkened, it is otherwise in very good condition. $500.
This is a very finely painted Zia seed jar by C.J. Shije. It is 4 1/2" high and 6" in diameter and is in excellent condition. It will make a fine addition to anyone's Pueblo pottery collection.
$175.
This is a very finely carved Kpan senior female mask of the Baule people of the Ivory Coast. It is 14" high and dates to the 1950s. It is in good condition for its age and use. $1500.
Kpan masks appear as the last four pairs of masks in the Baule version of the Goli dance, "a day-long spectacle that normally involves the whole village ....
and, ideally, the joyous consuption of a great deal of palm wine." (Vogel, 1997).
This very finely painted little jar was made by Berleen
Estevan (b. 1975) of Acoma Pueblo. It measures 4"
high and 4 1/2" in diameter. The design features
kokopeli on one side and dancers on the other on an
otherwise traditional Acoma black and white design. It is in excellennt condition.
$135.
Here is a war shield of the Arawe people of the western end of the island of New Britain. It is 54" high
and made of wood, rattan and natural pigments. It is in very good condition. $1200.
Arawe shields are made of three bowed planks joined with lashings of rattan and decorated with painted spirals, usually paired as on this shield, and
other carving. See: Shields: Adfrica, Southeast Asia and Oceania, Barbier-Muller, 2000.
This fine old shield comes from the Kalinga people of Northern Luzon, the Philippines. It dates to the early 20th century. It is made of wood and rattan and is in very good condition with considerable patina.
$1200.
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Baskets
Pottery
Masks
Shields
Figures
Textiles
Paddles
Miscellaneous
This is a very handsome and large Hopi dough bowl. It is 6" high and 14" in diameter and in excelllent condition. It is signed on the bottom with an animal inage.
$600
