Headdress
Headdress
Attribution: Museum-publishedProvenance: Museum accession
Attribution follows a published museum catalogue or peer-reviewed scholarship. Object is held in a public collection under a published accession number.
Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Worldwide, this practice is unique. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for girls’ education in preparation for marriage. The headdress represents a girl who evokes ideal female beauty and is ready for marriage. The depicted hairstyle was worn during the coming-out ceremony following the girls’ seclusion.
Catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art as “Headdress”, dated early 1900s. Harvested from the museum’s open-access record; every field below is copied from that record and none of it has been inferred.
Record
| People / culture | Ejagham |
|---|---|
| Country | Nigeria |
| Common name | Headdress |
| Form category | Headdress or crest worn atop the head |
| Materials | Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal |
| Dimensions | Overall: 67.3 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm (26 1/2 x 17 x 17 in.) |
Provenance
Pace Gallery, New York, NY (possibly 1970s)
Private Collection, New York
Private Collection, London
Entwistle and Co., Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art (?–1990)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1990–)
| Collection | Cleveland Museum of Art |
|---|---|
| Accession number | 1990.23 |
Source
Cleveland Museum of Art, Headdress, accession 1990.23. https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.23
https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.23
This record is a catalogue entry, not an appraisal, valuation or legal determination. Nothing here should be read as evidence that an object was lawfully acquired or exported.