An ancient and beautiful polychrome mask with its ancient ornament of vegetable fibers, also polychrome, recalling the polychromy in subdivision of the adouma masks or okukwé masks of the galoa. In spite of its obvious age and authenticity, this mask does not have any hanging holes and has not been danced. It was carved without having been initiated. For a Bavuvi mask photographed by Pierre Amrouche wearing a similar plant fiber ornament, see : Art ancestral du Gabon, Éd. Nathan and Musée Barbier-Mueller, 1985, p. 93. Benjabi, Gabon Wood, nails, old oxidation, mineral and vegetable polychromy H. 26 cm Provenance : Jacques Viault Collection.