Object Details
- Label Text
- Home grown gourds make practical and relatively inexpensive storage containers in many parts of Africa. However they are often embellished to create a display-worthy household or ceremonial object. This example from central Africa has finely worked fiber and glass beads added. It can be compared to two published examples. One from The American Museum of Natural History in New York lacks the beadwork clusters of this vessel and was collected by Frederick Starr in 1905-1906 among the Nsapo, a Songye related group. The second is in the collection of the Africa Museum at Tervuren and is described as an article of "daily life," a bottle used for water or palm wine.The Tervuren example, which has the bead clusters on the body but not the lid, still has the leather-carrying strap, that only survives as fragment ends on this container.
- Description
- Vessel made of a spherical gourd with a plant fiber neck and lid. Two V-form decorative bands of plant fiber, one dark and one light, encircle the body of the gourd, the points marked by clusters of European glass beads. The majority of the beads are blue or white tile beads (cylindrical molded or Prosser beads). Strands of glass seed beads form clusters on lid top. There are remains of a skin strap behind the clusters.
- Provenance
- Van Opstal collection, Brussels
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Songye artist
- Date
- Early 20th century
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Medium
- Gourd, plant fiber, glass beads ,leather
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 61 x 61 x 61 cm (24 x 24 x 24 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
