Malinke mask, Mali Wood, cowrie shells and tree seeds, wax, iron H. 46 cm Malinke mask, Mali H. 18 1/8 in Provenance: - Pierre Harter Collection, Paris - Etude Ricqlès, Paris, sale of 21 June 1995 - European Collection Pierre Harter (1928-1991), a specialist in tropical diseases, lived in Cameroon for thirty-four years, where he also became an ethnologist. He published the reference work Les Arts Anciens du Cameroun in 1986. He extended his collection to West Africa, and he particularly liked the audacity of his sculptors, as in this Malinke mask. This Bambara-Malinke hardwood comb mask is of a very beautiful geometric rigor, the face inscribed in a perfect triangle. The sculptor, with a great simplicity of means, has known how to signify the rectilinear nose between two round and deep eyes as well as the cheeks. The rounded forehead is decorated with cowries and arbus seeds fixed in wax. Of the four teeth of the comb, three are made of metal, which is an unusual restoration. Beautiful and very old patina, crusty in places.