Price on application
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An Unusually Large and Fine Tsonga Antelope Headrest.
Wood, pigment, glass beads.
Zimbabwe.
19th Century.
PROVENANCE:
Ex Private UK collection.
Sold through auction and purchased through Finch and Co, March 2012.
Ex Private collection.
EXHIBITED:
BRUNEAF, Bruxelles, La tête dans les étoiles. Appuis-Nuque d’Afrique de d’ailleurs 6 - 10 June 2012.
Among the Tsonga, wood carving was an exclusively male occupation and the types of objects carved, such as meat dishes, milk pails, headrests and staffs, were strongly associated with men, their cattle and the ancestors.
Ancestral spirits were believed to communicate with their living descendants through dreams and thus the ‘support of dreams’ (Falgayrettes 1989), the headrest, manifested this interdependence in a material form. Headrests were often gifts taken by a bride to her new home when she married and this custom symbolically linked her ancestors with her husbands.
Representational animal figures, mostly of antelope and cattle, appear very rarely in the art of South African headrests. The iconography suggests that this headrest probably belonged to a man of status and high rank.
Dimensions
20cm high, 32cm wide - 8 ins high, 12½ ins wideThe BADA Standard
- Since 1918, BADA has been the leading association for the antiques and fine art trade
- Members are elected for their knowledge, integrity and quality of stock
- Our clients are protected by BADA’s code of conduct
- Our dealers’ membership is reviewed and renewed annually
- Bada.org is a non-profit site: clients deal directly with members and they pay no hidden fees