A rare and important mask representing an ancestral spirit. The fine expressive face is decorated with four raised studs (one broken). These studs are possibly the representation of the spirits power, or vital energy, radiating out of his face.

Singarin or Kopar Villages (?), Lower Sepik PNG, Melanesia. Wood with an encrusted patina over red ocher pigment; old patinated damage to the rear top and rear of the chin.

Stone carved. 19th century (C-14 test pending). 51.4 x 22.3 x 13.5 cm.

Ex Coll.: Alex W.L. Filippini, Melbourne, Inv. N° N0-028. An identical example, probably by the same artist, and formerly in the collection of Sir Jacob Epstein, is illustrated in Bassani, Ezio & McLeod, Malcom D.: JACOB EPSTEIN COLLECTOR. Ass. Poro, Milano, 1989 as fig. 426, p. 130. Epstein seems to have acquired it at Sotheby’s in 1930, however its whereabouts are not presently known. See one with three smaller studs in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, Inv. N° VI 30 469, collected by Neuhauss at Singarin in 1909. And another with three studs on the forehead in the collection of The Museum of Primitive Art, N° 58.109 (now The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY) described as from Karau and illustrated in Wardwell, A.: THE ART OF THE SEPIK RIVER. Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. 1971, fig. 14, p. 22/23.