ON SALE! WAS $1,200.
A stunning, museum quality, Dogon mask carved integrally from one piece of wood with the forearms added and wood pegged and reinforced with leather strapping. This giant beauty is 3 feet tall! A 12 ounce beverage can is shown for size comparison. Beautifully aged and intricately carved. We were told that she was purchased from an African art dealer in the late 60’s for about the same price we are now listing her at.
Satimbe:
Sister of the masks, Dogon people, Mali, wood, leather, cowie shells and pigment.
This Dogon mask represents the ancient ancestress Yasigi. She cultivated the red hibiscus plant and used its fibers to make the first fiber shirts worn by the Dogon masked dancers. Yasigi is known as the “sister” of the masks and her mask is always present when other masks preform. The mask’s name is Satimbe, which means ”superimposed sister”, and refers to Yasigi’s position on top of the mask.
She brandishes a beer ladle in her left hand in her role as beer maker for the first Sigi ceremony, a ritual held every 60 years to commemorate the making of the Great Mask of the Dead. She holds a fly whisk in her right hand to show her status as the first dignity of the Sigi.
Dogon masks are box shaped and most represent wild animals of the bush. The masks appear at funerals to usher spirits of the dead from the village to the bush where they belong, thus restoring the order of the world. According to Dogon philosopher, Ogotemmeli, “The masked dancers are the world and when they dance in a public place they are dancing the process of the world and the world order.”
Mask comes with a framed print of the above.
Price is firm. Thanks for looking.

Regional & Ethnic Antiques