Mystery Wood Large Mask

Hello Everyone,
My name is Gary. This mask was recently given to me and I’m getting mixed info about where it was made ,and by who.. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello Gary, and welcome.
Despite the soup can, I am having difficulty understanding the size. it appears to be way too big to be an actual mask. Can you provide dimensions?
We also need to see a few more views - a side view/profile, the back, and a closer image of the design on the forehead.
What have you been told about it?

 

It’s probably close to fifty pounds and seems to be some unusually shaped wood. It’s 3 feet 3 inches tall x 1 foot 9.5 inches wide and 7.5 inches deep. Someone told me that it was from a northern New Guinea tribe that used them at the entrance of the village to discourage bad people from entering.after showing it to an expert on NG masks he says it looks Indonesian to him.

 

My first impression was Indonesian, but it seems to combine features from different Indonesian groups. The Batak of Sumatra do some big chinned masks:


https://masksoftheworld.com/sumatran-helmet-mask/

The birds on these masks are similar to the carving on yours. Unfortunately the source of this image attributes the masks to Indonesia, but does not specify the ethnic group or island:

https://bayutrading.com/portfolio/primitive-art-and-decoration/

When you have this sort of combination of features, and the extraordinary size, it often means the item is a dramatic pastiche designed for the decorator/tourist market.

I will tag @Any Jewelry, who knows Indonesian objects well.

 

JMHO. inca or aztec

 

Welcome Gary.

I agree.
It has all the characteristics of a Batak mask, but it isn't one I have seen before. They had some really big masks, mostly like the one @2manybooks showed. Some were more decorated, but I have never seen one as decorated as this one. It could be an early souvenir, but I just don't know.

You could send photos to a museum. There is a Batak museum in Indonesia called the Huta Bolon Simanindo Batak Museum, but I can't find an email address for them.
Both the Wereldmuseum and the Tropenmuseum in the Netherlands have Indonesian collections and they have contact info:
info@wereldmuseum.nl
info@tropenmuseum.nl