Headrest (Isicamelo or Isigqiki)
Northern Nguni
1801–1900
- Medium
- Wood
- Dimensions
- 17.8 × 47 × 19.7 cm (7 × 18 1/2 × 7 3/4 in.)
- Genre
- furniture
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
woodEastern and Southern AfricaFurniturestatuswood (plant material)doweryafrican Artarts of Africacarvingsouth africanprestigedecorative artswealthzulucattle
About
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a neckrest formed part of a bride’s dowry. Though highly abstracted, the form of this example appropriately evokes a bull, a source of wealth and a means of ancestral communication. However, its exceptionally large size suggests that this neckrest may have been a nonfunctional prestige object in the treasury of a nobleman.
