A very rare and ancient anthropo-zoomorphic Sagbwe mask, featuring a human face with a bird's beak, topped by eight horns around which a bundle of "fetish feathers" is attached. This rare type of mask is characteristic of the Maou of Côte d'Ivoire, who undoubtedly borrowed from the Bambara the concept of the comb mask and its branches becoming horns, which for the Bambara N'tomo symbolize shoots emerging from the earth, celebrating the fertility of both fields and people. See: for another mask from the same corpus, the one from the former René Rasmussen collection, photographed on p.18 lot 12 of the catalog of the estate's 1st sale on December 14, 1979. Maou, Ivory Coast Wood, feathers, cotton thread, old oxidation, worm-eaten surface, old dry patina. H. 33 cm Provenance : Guy Montbarbon Collection, Paris Stéphane Mangin, Galerie Kanaga, Paris Collection J. Maillot, Paris, acquired 2005