A superb Igbo maiden spirit mask

agbogho mmwo, of refined proportions and helmet-shaped form, the delicate face of overall linear composition with a pointed chin, upturned mouth baring teeth beneath the pointed nose bisecting the close-set eyes framed by arching brows and pointed ears leading to the dramatically upswept tri-crested headdress of elaborate openwork form flanked by four fragmentary flanges to the sides; aged surface overall decorated with black and white pigment.

The British Museum, London (unincorporated)
Ralph Nash, London, acquired through exchange from the above, December 1968
Acquired from the above, London, January 8, 1969

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Museum, Selections from the William W. Brill Collection of African Art, May 5 – August 31, 1969 (for additional venues see bibliography, Milwaukee 1969)
Los Angeles, UCLA, Frederick S. Wight Gallery, Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, October 9 - November 25, 1984 (for additional venues see bibliography, Cole and Aniakor 1984)
New York, Center for African Art, Wild Spirits/Strong Medicine: African Art and Wilderness, May 10 - August 20, 1989 (for additional venues see bibliography, Anderson and Kreamer 1989)

Trowell 1954: plate V, figure B
Trowell and Nevermann 1968: 36
Milwaukee 1969: cover
Asihene 1972: 79, figure 58
Cole and Aniakor 1984: 120, figure 224
Anderson and Kraemer 1989: 94, figure 22 
African Arts 1984. Volume XXIII, number 2: 84
Robbins and Nooter 1989: 257, figure 678

One of Brill's prized acquisitions, this mask held center stage at the series of exhibitions held for his collection in 1969 and was also featured as the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Brill also made special mention of this mask in a 1969 television interview in conjunction with the Duluth, Minnesota leg of the exhibition.

The Igbo Maiden Spirit Mask from the Brill Collection
by Herbert M. Cole

Igbo wood maiden masks, agbogho mmuo, are of two main types: a semi-helmet with an integrally carved crested superstructure, as in the Brill example, or much smaller face masks which, when worn, have cloth-covered wood superstructures attached. The two types were each normally worn with bright, multicolored appliqué costumes. They were danced by young men who honored unmarried girls and ancestors, both of whom are referenced in these masks. Maidens are recalled in their fine features and especially in the masks’ pierced crescent hairstyles (as well as by small breasts attached to the front of the costume), while ancestors are signaled by the white clay pigmentation of the mask faces, a color which also connotes the goodness, purity and beauty of the girls.

The Brill mask is a superb, virtuosic example, with three openwork and finely detailed crests simulating a celebratory hairstyle formerly worn by girls when “coming out” from seclusion, and now marriageable. Yet this mask’s superstructure is far more elaborate, more baroque one might say, than any known hairstyle affected by an Igbo girl in life. Beside the two smaller crests on each side are simulated combs that have been slotted into the head, which is itself covered with tight spirals recalling precisely dressed hair. The circular devices running along the sides of the central crest simulate brass discs that were sometimes attached to these fancy hairstyles to further enhance them – but seldom or never in life were there as many as are shown here. The cups or cones that run along the top of the same crest are more puzzling, but they may represent small horns containing medicines to insure the strength of the mask dancer’s legs, so that he will never fall down, as that would be an evil omen. Again, there are more such cups than would have appeared in an actual hairstyle.

The three crests on this mask indicate that it is later than masks with single crests, the latter well documented to the period from 1900 to about 1925, or perhaps slightly earlier or later. Masks with three crests were made for local use from around 1930 until the 1950s and 60s (and many fakes, some based directly on illustrations of the Brill mask, have been made for export from the 1980s to the present). The exceptionally well planned and controlled carving of its openwork crests, and their meticulous detailing, stem from carvers’ interest in aggrandizing earlier crested hairstyles, quite probably due to competitive urges of surpassing other known carvers and their masks: 'I will carve a better, bigger, finer, and more elaborate mask than Chukwumma made across the river' – the Brill carver might well have said. The Igbo are well known for this competitive spirit in the arts as in other realms of life.