mask (dance & live theatre)

Tolai mask. Carved wooden mask of a face with knotted vegetable fibre 'beard', and a feather fringe at the back of the mask. It has a crown-shaped support structure decorated with a 'hat shape' made from bands covered with coloured textile strips (pink, yellow, and blue) and band of feathers. The mask has knotted vegetable fibre as 'hair', with a conical finial made from wood. The face is painted with light blue, green/turquoise, red, and white pigment. The side of the face is painted with terracotta coloured pigment.

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
2001.45
Date
1994 - 1997
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 490 mm x 540 mm x 460 mm; overall: 545 mm x 480 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
wood; vegetable fibre; pigment; feather; textile
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
LOCATION
World Gallery > Oceania > Papua New Guinea - masks
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Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

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