Post #589560 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Tue, May 17, 2011 12:58 PM

In the close-up photo, you can see the blocky "shoulders" and slightly asymetrical, tilted head on the mask, which are two of the key indicators that it's likely of Mexican origin (though these are not always necessarily present). The fact that some definitely do have a Ku-like mouth could be coincidence or perhaps due to the Mexican carvers getting feedback that their masks were being used in Hawaiian restaurants and adapting them to fit their new market? I wish I knew.

The ones like your image above, with the blocky shoulders or torso seem to have come from Monterrey and other Northern border cities. I've got a brochure from Texas showing how you could buy them from border tourist shops. Sometimes they had a snake carved on the forehead as well.

The very similar asymetrical ones with eye-slits cut just under the carved eyes on the mask seem to originate mostly from Michoacan. So I suspect they are copies of the dance masks used in the Viejitos Dance of that area, and were supposed to look like old men. Not the fine Viejitos masks they actually used - but cheap tourist knock-offs for hanging on a wall, that they sold for less than a dollar.

The "Dragon" masks with the pointy fang-like teeth that you mentioned appear to come from Indonesia or that area of the world and deserve a post of their own.

Randy - I think you're right on the shell phone. I also like the color scheme of yellows and tans.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2011-05-17 14:08 ]