An Extremely Fine South African Tsonga Prestige Staff by the ‘Baboon Master'

A Rare and Extremely Fine South African Tsonga Prestige Staff by the ‘Baboon Master’.

Depicting a Zulu elder wearing a head-ring.
Superb silky reddish brown patina.

Late 19th Century.

These staffs were used by indigenous Zulu leaders as ceremonial and important prestige items and were also carved for sale to European travellers and traders, soldiers and colonists who would purchase them as memento’s of Zulu land.

The ‘Baboon Master’ was most probably a gifted migrant Tsonga wood carver working in the colony of Natal at the end of the 19th century and who developed a workshop carving staffs to meet a growing colonial commercial demand.          

Baboon Master Staff – Zulu / Tsonga – references.

The Art of Southern Africa  (The Terence Pethica Collection).

No. 57 (page 134/5).

H – 113.5cm – 44 ¼ ins.
Provenance: Christies, Amsterdam, May 2000.

The Mlungu in Africa art from the colonial period, 1840 – 1940.

M. Stevenson and M. Graham-Stewart.

No. 11a (page 38/39).
H – 120cm – (height of figure: 27cm).

Art and Ambiguity – Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art.

Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1991.

PL 34 (page 78).

H – 105cm.
Provenance: Jonathan Lowen.

Ubuntu Arts et Cultures d’Afrique du Sud.

Exhibition Paris, 20 fevrier – 17 juin 2002. 

No. 20 (page 166).

Provenance: Jonathan Lowen.
                     Brenthurst Collection.

(See Art and Ambiguity).

Zulu Treasure Amgugu kaZulu.
The Local History Museums, Durban, South Africa, 1996.

W92 – KCM, C3210 (page 91).

H – 21cm.

Provenance: Ken Karner (1993).

Known examples by the Baboon Master: 

two in Johannesburg Art Gallery (see above).
one in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin.
one in the Local History Museum, Durban (Zulu Treasures) (see above).

Provenance:
Ex Private Belgium collection.

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance