Carved in a lightweight wood showing a very fine aged patina of use with traces of kaolin, and dark brown pigments.

The white Ngo Ntang masks (literally "the young white woman"), collected between the second half of the 19th century through the early 20th century in Fang communities across present-day northern Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and southern Cameroon, were used in masquerades to fight witchcraft and treat illness; they contributed to the social regulation of Fang villages.

Among the most admired and sought-after works of African art, Fang masks fascinated and inspired avant-garde artists and intellectuals of the early 20th century such as Paul Guillaume, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and Georges Braque with their highly-stylized, cubist forms.

The corpus of Fang masks is very rare and this unique "Ngo Ntang" mask, with its minimalist design, is a marvel of harmony and geometry.