Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card: 'Wooden comb, plain on reverse.'
In pencil: 'There are 2 similar combs with this number'.
In different handwriting: 'Another object with this number is a small, carved bird of wood - part of a mask (ogbodu).'

Event Date
Author: maa

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Description (Labels & Markings)
Written on rear of face portion in pencil: '2729'
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Auction / Sale)
Purchased using money from Prof. A.A. Bevan’s subscription to the Museum’s Accessions Fund.
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Amendments / updates)
In the accession register, Z 11917 is a comb. A "small wooden bird, part of mask + mask" has been added to the entry. Z 11918 is a mask. It appears that two masks have been given the number Z 11918.
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Field collection)
Collected by Northcote W. Thomas in Edo State, Agenibode (now Agene(g)bode) town. The inhabitants belong to the Edo ethnic group, and also identify themselves further as Yekhee people. The language they speak is also referred to as Etsako. See Blench, R. M., 1995. The Work of N.W. Thomas as Government Anthropologist in Nigeria. The Nigerian Field, 60, pp.29.

Event Date
Author: Remke van der Velden

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Context (Related Documents)
In different handwriting on catalogue card: 'Another object, which has the number 2729 marked clearly on it, which should therefore be Z 11917 also is the wooden mask described on next card. It had been given the number Z 11918, but this would seem to belong to another mask, numbered 2730 and also Z 11918. I have therefore changed the numbering and made a new card. (K.H.).'


Event Date
Author: maa

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Description (Labels & Markings)
Stump of luggage tag attached with string, no writing remains.
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Related Documents)
See E 1910.118 and E 1913.3 records for further details about the Thomas Collection from Nigeria. [T.Cotterill]
Event Date 7/5/2001
Author: Remke van der Velden

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Description (Physical description)
Wooden mask with large ridged crest. There are a series of holes on the top of the head ?the bird [Z 11917.2] would have been attached using these. Small angular face with long sharp nose, carved teeth and narrow eyes with blackening around eyes. Ears are set above the eyes. Two sections of ridges are broken and missing from the crest. Large crack in the wood on the back of the skull cap. [K. Sutton]
Event Date 11/6/2001
Author: Katrina Dring

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Description (Physical description)
Head mask with a large flat protrusion running from the centre of the head to the back in a crest, with a jagged outer edge. Some of the ‘teeth’ of the outer edge have broken off. Unpainted. The mask has a slim face, common in Igbo carvings. Right around the head holes have been drilled in the base to attach fibre from. The nose is slim, the face elegant. The holes in the eyes are for the wearer to see through. The teeth are exposed and the face ends in a tapering jaw. All of these are typical features of an Igbo mask, whereas it was collected from an Edo place so perhaps the mask travelled before being collected or its maker was heavily influenced by the Igbo. The ears are schematised but represented. Given its size the mask will have been used. The mask is accompanied by a small wooden bird [now Z 11917.2, KMD 02/11/2018] with the same number which was probably once attached to it with fibre. It measures L:11c m x W:7 cm. The Northcote Thomas on the bird reads: ‘Mask, part of, (ogbodu), wood small bird’. Another label on the bird as well as on the mask states that there is a comb with the same IDNO. It also appears that record 1 Z 11918A (which cannot be found in its box) may have been renumbered as Z 11917 according to the label attached to Z 11918B. Similar to Z 12297.
[Information provided by Dr Ohioma Pogoson, Honorary Curator of the Museum of the Institute for African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. January 2013.]
Event Date 29/1/2013
Author: maa

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Context (Amendments / updates)
Record updated as part of the Museum Affordances project 2018-2020


Event Date 02/11/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Amendments / updates)
Masks Z 11917 and Z 12297 are very similar in form despite being from Agenibode and Fugar, respectively. They both have the same pattern of holes drilled into the helmet which suggests that Z 12297 may have had similar attachments of combs and birds as Z 11917.
Event Date 1/11/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Amendments / updates)
The helmet mask Z 11917.1 appears to originally have had Z 11917.2-4 attached to it. The mask is recorded in Thomas' 1st Catalogue as entry 2729: '[Mask] (ogbodu)', and all four pieces (Z 11917.1-4) are marked in pencil with the number 2729. The left hand page of the catalogue notes: '2729 | Comb, 5 large prongs, top carved one side'. It appears that this note was added at a later date when the pieces had become separated and perhaps only the comb was known about.

The pattern of holes drilled into the top of the helmet suggest that the combs would have been either side of the comb and parallel to it, while the bird would have been at the front or rear of the comb, on either side. The broken prong of comb Z 11917.4 is stuck in one of the rows of five holes along the side of the crest. There is only one bird extant, Z 11917.2, but it seems plausible that there would have been three others originally, or at least three other additional elements which attached to the mask.
Event Date 2/11/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

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Description (Related Documents)
Carved wooden helmet mask with small face portion and large denticulated crest. The face is small and narrow with a pointed chin, mouth with teeth, small ears either side of the forehead and two eye slits cut either side of the nose. The helmet section is plain, with four holes drilled in a row either side of the crest and two holes drilled either side of the crest at the front and back. These appear to be for attachments Z 11917.2-4, several of the holes retaining broken pieces of doweling. There are holes drilled all around the edge of the helmet and face portions. There is a large split at the rear of the helmet, and sections of the toothed edge of the crest at the front and rear are missing. There is a hole drilled into the side of the face. Some signs of insect damage.
Event Date 2/11/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

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Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card originally for Z 11918, subsequently altered to read Z 11917 and then Z 11918/Record 1 reads: 'Mask (ogbalo)'
In second hand: 'of wood. Large helmet mask with a large crest on the top, with the facial features squeezed onto the small area in the 'chin' of the mask.'
In third hand: '[Negative number 49.13]'
A note related to this negative number reads: 'not known whether this refers to Z 11917 or Z 11918' [Z 11917.1, KMD 07/11/2018]
NB. Pencil drawing of Z 11917 on back of catalogue card shows 'holes for raffia'. Note reads 'NB. This seems to be a common type of mask among the IBO see -' and in different handwriting 'Z 12269 FUGA Z 12267 FUGA Z 13928 NISE'.
Event Date 7/11/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

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Description (Physical description)
Ogbodu. Carved wooden helmet mask with a small, narrow facial area and large denticulated crest. Facial features include a pointed chin, mouth with teeth, two small ears and narrow eyes as well as a rectangular nose. Along the base of the helmet is a band of circular holes, a motif also present in a mirrored two:five:two pattern along the crest, some with wooden residue present, with the except of two additional circular holes to the right.
Event Date 28/9/2021
Author: Jane Pettitt