105. BAMANA HEADDRESS, MALI OR BURKINA FASO sogoni koun wood, pigments, cloth, fibres, metal Height 31 cm Provenance collected in 1931-1932 by Carl & Amalie Kjersmeier, Copenhagen Grete Balle (1926-), Denmark, 1958 Literature Otte Stensager, T., "Carl Kjersmeier and Sogoni Koun. A life, a journey, and a passion for African Art", in Tribal Art Magazine, Winter 2016, no. 82, pp.106-121, fig.24 Carl Kjersmeier, a Danish lawyer born in 1889, married Amalie Edelsten in 1917, just a year before acquiring his first African art object. As highlighted in Stensager's article in Tribal Art magazine, the Kjersmeiers assembled the majority of their collection during the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout his life, Kjersmeier contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications on African art, appreciating these objects not only for their aesthetic qualities but also for their cultural significance and original use. In addition to acquisitions from dealers, collectors, and auction houses across Europe and the United Kingdom, the couple undertook their first field study and collecting expedition to what was then French West Africa from November 1931 to April 1932. The author notes that, despite numerous challenges, "the Kjersmeiers collected some 300 objects on the journey, including fifty-six sogoni koun and chi wara dance crests. More than half of these, thirty-four pieces, were either sold or given to private collectors, dealers, and museums". After their passing in 1961 and 1968, their collection was bequeathed to the National Museum in Copenhagen, where it remains on display to this day.