A very old Nwanza helmet mask with a crested headdress, including finely chiseled braided braids undulating superbly on either side of the crested braid representations, its eyes made of glass inlays. For two other masks from the same corpus, see L'Art Africain, Kerchache, Paudrat & Stephan, 1993, p.406, no. 188 or Igbo Arts Community and Cosmos, Cole & Aniakor, 1984, p.118, no. 221. Idoma, Nigeria Wood, glass, nails, small visible cracks, very fine old patina. Provenance: Hélène Leloup Collection, Paris Passed down through generations