Posted 10 years ago
fixitjmc
(145 items)
My son found this devil mask at the local swap shop. Mask is carved from a single wood burl and hand painted. No Idea about age or actual place of where it was made, but it does resemble some Mexican devil masks that I have seen. Mask is 11" long and 6 1/2" wide at widest point. Some people get a little uncomfortable handling it, says it gives them the creeps. There is a particularly foul odor that is evident, probably from storage in a musty basement.
It might be a Mexican mask carving that was for hanging in the home. Certainly there is a wide variety of devil masks from many cultures. Is the wood really soft that you can push your thumb nail into it...? If so it might be made out of balsa wood which is a South American Wood... This is my best guess...
I think this is Japanese. I have a similar one. It is possibly an Oni a kind of y?kai from Japanese folklore. Hope this helps