The “Bandjoun Trove”, photograph taken in Bandjoun in 1970-72
by Pierre Dartevelle: the Lambert Mask at the center, flanked by
the Franklin Mask (today Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac,
acc. no. 73.1990.5.1) on the left and the Itzikowitz Mask on the right.
The Lambert Batcham Mask
Bandjoun Chiefdom, Grassfields Region
Present-day Cameroon
Height: 88.5 cm
Provenance
– Collected by Pierre Dartevelle and Martial Bronsin in Bandjoun, 1970-1972
– Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels
– Baron Léon Lambert, Brussels, acquired from the above
– Comte Baudouin de Grunne, Wezembeek-Oppem, acquired from the above
– Domitilla de Grunne, Brussels, received as gift from the above
– Eric and Claudine Swenden, Brussels, acquired in the late 1980s from the above
with the assistance of Philippe Guimiot, Brussels
– Schweizer Premodern, New York, sold to a Private Collector
Exhibited
– Musée d’Arts Africains, Océaniens, Amérindiens, Centre de la Vieille Charité, Marseille,
Batcham: sculptures du Cameroun, November 13, 1993 – January 31, 1994
– Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, David Adjaye’s Geo-Graphics: a Map of Art Practices in
Africa, Past and Present, June 9 – September 26, 2010
– The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Face of Dynasty: Royal Crests from
Western Cameroon, December 4, 2017 – September 3, 2018
Published
– Jean-Paul Notué, Batcham: sculptures du Cameroun. Nouvelles perspectives
anthropologiques, Marseille, 1993, p. 109, no. 4; as well as pp. 23, 25, 26, and 33 (drawing)
– Anne-Marie Bouttiaux and Koyo Kouoh, David Adjaye’s Geo-Graphics: a Map of Art
Practices in Africa, Past and Present, Brussels, 2010, p. 346
– Jason Farago, “African Masterpieces With the Grace of Kings”, The New York Times,
January 17, 2018
– Yaëlle Biro, “The Canon and Its Consequences: The Reception of Bamileke Tsesah Crests”,
Tribal Art, no. 87, Spring 2018, p. 126
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