20th-Century Fake Chokwe Mask
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GUEST:
Originally, a friend of mine from Fairview Heights bought it. He paid like $3,900 for it.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And he wanted to get rid of it, so I traded him out of it.
APPRAISER:
What was your trade value?
GUEST:
At that time, it was high, it was like $7,500 or something. I traded it to a fella in Peoria, Illinois. Well, I traded him quite a bit of African, but he had quite a collection, and he decided he wanted to get rid of all his African. So I ended up trading the African back from him, and then I traded to a fellow in St. Louis. And after he had it for a while, I decided I wanted it back again, so I traded him out of it. After that, I just kind of hung onto it.
APPRAISER:
What was the date that you acquired it, approximately?
GUEST:
Somewhere between 20 and 30 years ago.
APPRAISER:
And so in the course of the many times that you owned it, was $7,500 the highest value that was placed on it?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So did you do any research on what you think it is, or—
GUEST:
Well, I thought it was a Chokwe mask. Okay. And I thought it was from the 1800s.
APPRAISER:
So if we look at it stylistically, it does conform to what we would expect to see in the Chokwe Complex. And the Chokwe Complex is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and some of Zambia. These marks on the cheeks are very important because they're idiosyncratic of this particular tribal area. So whenever we see markings on the forehead or the cheeks, we can say, "Oh, that's a Chokwe marking," or "That's Kuba," or "That's something else." But it's diagnostic in telling us where the mask is from.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I think the teeth are probably bone. The hair is a fiber material that's been painted a little bit to make it look like an animal skin. Now, we're going to find out whether this thing is right or not. So when we look at the inside of a mask, there's a couple of things that we want to see. Now these holes would have raffia in them, and as the dancer is dancing, he's moving up and down, and this raffia is rubbing those holes, and you would see like a teardrop on the holes where the raffia's rubbed. We don't see that. So, the holes bother me a little bit. Now, let's look at the inside of the mask. Now, I want you to imagine yourself in Africa. You're a dancer. It's hot, and you're dancing like crazy, and your perspiring. Now, there's going to be a mark for foreheads, noses, cheeks, chins, because you're going to be rubbing against the inside of the mask. But as we look, it's pretty consistent, except right here, in this area in the center. And I could tell you now, that's artificial. So this is really made to fool you. So we've looked at the outside, the outside conformed, the inside didn't. So what we have-- we don't have a decorative mask, what we do have is we have a fake. Because this was made to deceive. This mask, as a fake, is worth $200 to $300.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
That would be a good retail value. I've sold Chokwe masks to museums, and you know how expensive they can be.
GUEST:
Oh, I know.
APPRAISER:
Hundreds of thousands of dollars now. I'll probably put it on my mantel, leave it there until I die.
GUEST:
You know what, it's attractive to look at.
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