Vintage Mexican Mermaid Mask with Birds – Hand-Carved Wood Guerrero Folk Art Dance Mask

A wonderfully strange hand-carved Mexican mask, where a long-haired mermaid forms the nose, her striped tail curving down to a bright red tongue. Two long-beaked birds with green-and-gold eyes wrap around the sides to form the cheeks, and the full face beneath them peeks out with red lips. The weathered gray interior and worn paint show genuine age.

A bit of history: Mask carvers in Guerrero, Mexico, are famous for “stacking” creatures onto a single face, with lizards, snakes, fish, birds, and mermaids crawling over the features. The sirena (mermaid) is a favorite figure in Mexican folk art, where she’s often linked to water, rain, and abundance, and she turns up in dance masks, pottery, and the Lotería card game.

Details: Carved and painted wood, Approx. 10 x 8 x 4.5 in.
Condition: Good vintage condition with paint losses on the noses, tongue, and chin, a small crack near the lower lip, and weathering consistent with age. Please see photos.