This is a very rare Abelam yam mask from the southern Wosera area composed of a balsa wood ancestral face with a beautiful woven headdress attached to the back. The fiber section is very tightly constructed and has remains of several layers of pigments. The balsa wood face has nicely protruding eyes and a sweetly pursed mouth with the tongue showing-while I cannot say why but on many of the earliest examples of Abelam art the tongue is visible within the mouth. The yam mask is 21 ¾" in height, dates to the 1930s. sold