A photograph in the Stapelen mission archives of the display case containing the Cooymans collection of New Guinea art showing as it had been in the Mission reception room for many years.
A miniature mask representing a bearded human face. The eyes are decorated with European shirt buttons and the ears show ornaments composed of glass trade-beads. There is a strong Washkuk influence visible in the architecture of the powerful geometric forms of the nose and coloration. There is a strong probability that the mask was carved along the lower Sepik but perhaps by a man from the Washkuk. Lower Sepik, PNG, Melanesia. Wood with pigments, buttons and glass beads pigments. 14.5 x 5.2 x 4 cm. 19/20th century. Provenance : The collection of the wine-merchant Cooymans. He is probably the inventor of the egg based brandy drink known as ‘Advocaat’. Cooymans obtained a collection of New Guinea art from SVD missionaries to whom he had given financial support in the early years of the 20th century. He subsequently gave his collection to the Stapelen Museum of the Assumptionists (Augustinians of the Assumption (A.A.)) in Boxtel, The Netherlands. Stapelen museum Inv. N° 766 painted on the lower inside. Acquired by Michel Thieme from the Museum in 2005. Acquired from Willem Zwiep, Amsterdam. Galerie Meyer, Paris. Ex collection Olivier Gaillot, Troyes.
