Latin America, Mexico, ca. early to mid 20th century. A wonderful pair of well-carved wooden festival masks, both depicting male visages with thick brows, mustaches, and goatees - one with jet black facial hair and the other with glimmering golden facial hair. Each countenance looks out with ice blue eyes, a pink complexion, and red lips. Both also have eye holes through which the wearer was able to see and perforations around the peripheries that were either for attachment of ornaments, attachment to a costume, or securing to the wearer's head. Size: mask with golden facial hair measures 8" L x 6.125" W (20.3 cm x 15.6 cm) - Both masks are about the same size.

Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex Collection of Dr. Edward A. Spiegel (1931—2020) Professor of astronomy at New York University and Columbia University who worked on convection theory and on the application of fluid dynamics to astrophysics and was the first to discover Chaos Theory. As a professor, he gained a reputation among his students for his amusing stories of meeting other famous scientists such as Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.

#161320

Both masks present with expected age wear and some loss and chipping to paint as shown.