The above Ekoi (Ejagham) headdress (height: 37 cm) from the Alberto Galaverni collection was offered for sale by Koller on 11 December. Estimated at CHF 5,000 – CHF 10,000, it made a suprising CHF 41,000 (without costs) – that’s eight times the low estimate or € 33,5K and thus worth a mention. For more images and information click here.
It is somewhat related to an Ekoi headdress (without horns), collected ca. 1860 by Frederick Wolff, currently at the Denver Art Museum (illustrated below); one of the earliest collected examples.
UPDATE: I received some messages to inform me that the Denver Art Museum’s headdress is at least one or two generations earlier; I do agree. There are multiple other examples that are from the same generation, but I prefered to illustrate this particular headdress due to its early collection date. Apparently the Galaverni headdress was bought by a French dealer – probably inspired by the result of Allan Stone’s Ekoi headdress.
