An ancient Bla anthropo-zoomorphic mask from the Guyé group (also known as Je), with horns drooping to the front, adorned with a beard stylized with a cut-out frieze of triangles ending under the chin in a flat blossoming shape. This beautiful archaic style, with its long, straight nose, arched eyebrows and the curvature of its horns, so typical of early works and reminiscent of the finest Senufo kpelie masks, is the embodiment of the ram in the Guyé ensemble, and should be compared with three other Baoule (and Yahouré) masks from the same corpus, including one from the former Jos Hessel collection (reproduced on pl. 97 in Negerplastik in 1915) but also exhibited and published many times by the Fondation Dapper, another with a beard frieze of openwork triangles and attributed to the Yahouré in René Buthaud's wonderful old collection, and a smaller one, also very old, from the former F. Rambaud collection. Rambaud collection. In fact, despite the abundance of different Baule horned masks in existence, a quick but careful survey of antique masks published in specialized literature (made possible and facilitated thanks to the extraordinary work of Guy Van Rijn over several decades and to his website) we can see that there are in fact very few Bla masks of a truly archaic, beautiful antique style like the one on offer today from the former Louis Carré collection, and it's not surprising that we've just rediscovered that this mask was one of the works selected and exhibited in 1935 at the famous African Negro Art exhibition at MOMA in New York, listed under number 93 in the catalog. See: for the mask in the former J. Hessel collection, now in the Dapper collection, Masques, Musée Dapper, 1996 (reproduced on p. 127). See: for the mask by R. Buthaud in Côte d'Ivoire. Premiers regards sur la sculpture 1850-1935, Goy, Schoffel Valluet, 2012 See: for the mask in the F. Rambaud collection, Christie's, Paris sale December 2, 2021, no. 34 See: p. 36, n° 93 in the catalog of the exhibition African Negro Art, J.J. Sweeney, Museum of Modern Art, New York 1935 Baule, Ivory Coast 19th century Wood, pigments, visible missing parts on the back (old breakage), broken/glued horns, inventory numbers and old labels on the reverse, very fine old patina. H. 32.5 cm Provenance : Louis Carré Collection, Paris Merton Simpson, New York Martin Collection, New York Peter and Monica Wengraf, London Zunz Collection, London Transmitted by descent Publications and exhibitions: Sweeney, African Negro Art, 1935, n° 93 (listed), New York, Museum of Modern Art, March 18 - May 19, 1935 / San Francisco, Museum of Art, July 26 - September 12, 1935 / Manchester, Currier Gallery of Art, June 10 - July 8, 1935 / Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, July 23 - September 2, 1935 / Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, November 15 - December 9, 1935 / Milwaukee, Art Institute, January 7 - 26, 1936 / Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, March 25 - April 14, 1936 Sotheby Parke Bernet, April 22, 1972, no. 75 Sotheby's, London, July 10 1973, no. 107 Sotheby's, Paris, December 4 2020, n° 23