Heddle Pulley (Bo Nun Amuin mask) (1900s): Art, History and Details

Heddle Pulley (Bo Nun Amuin mask) (1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The heddle pulley, a working element of a narrow-band loom, bears a miniature sculpture. Heddle pulleys support and separate threads during weaving. Mounted above the weaver, the pulleys allow him to glance up at an object of inspiring beauty, rather than pure functionality. This pulley depicts a face mask, a secular usage of a typically sacred mask type.

Object facts

• Title: Heddle Pulley (Bo Nun Amuin mask)
• Date: 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Baule-style carver
• Type: Tools and Equipment
• Technique: Wood, metal, and plant fiber
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1971.300

A detail from the museum

This heddle pulley depicts a fearsome Bo Nun Amuin mask that recalls nature spirits.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fagg, William Buller. African Tribal Images:the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968, no. 88.
• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review 1972.” In Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 106, no. 27.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.