The Art of Daily Life Enters its Final Week

Regarded as the finest showcase of Southern African art in recent years, The Art of Daily Life will enter its final week at the Cleveland Museum of Art on February 19. Through some seventy-five works from American private collections and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art, the exhibition resplendently celebrates the stunning formal diversity and cultural significance of Southern Africa’s artistic heritage. Despite having enjoyed a degree of growing interest and appreciation over the past three decades, the art of indigenous Southern African societies has long been largely neglected. The Art of Daily Life puts the works of these traditions––which so subtly bridge the planes of the mundane and sacred––under a spotlight to receive the recognition they so unreservedly deserve. 

Visit the official website here.

Staff attributed to the "Baboon Master"   Tsonga, South Africa   19th–20th century

 

Prestige vessel   Nguni, South Africa   19th–20th century

Woman's beaded apron   Nguni, South Africa   19th–20th century

Pipe with anthropomorphic bowl   Sotho or Nguni, Lesotho or South Africa   19th–20th century

Headrest    Shona or Tsonga, Mozambique, South Africa or Zimbabwe   19th–20th century

Images courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Tsonga Neckrest - South Africa

The above images depict a rare Tsonga neckrest with carrying handle in the form of a dance staff, the handle of which terminates in an elegant disk-shaped finial often found on North Nguni staffs. The gently curving handle is perfectly carved to allow the end of the handle to rest on the floor surface. South African neckrests with carrying handles are particularly rare.

Carved on the surface of the horizontal support are five parallel rows of fine dots carved in relief. These dots would have formed indentations in the face of the male sleeper, reminiscent of the scarification patterns on North Nguni women. These temporary facial patterns were said to be the source of much amusement.

JacarandaTribal.com

Christie's Interior Sale features fine Nguni Pipes

Christie's London "Interior: Masters & Makers" sale concluded today, fetching nearly £300,000. The auction featured 132 lots from the pipe collection of British appliance magnate, Trevor Barton.

A circa 17th century Sinhalese Ivory Double-Pipe Case sold for £51,650 at the Unusual Smoking Pipe sale, far surpassing the £8,000 - £12,000 presale estimate. The work was the sale's top lot.

Ivory pipe cases, Austrian Meerschaum pipes, and 18th century tobacco figures were among the top lots. 

A large Austrian Meerschaum Pipe (circa 1875) sold for £7,500. The ivory pipe, carved as the head of a young lady carrying a porte-monnaie and wearing an elaborate wrist corsage, was projected to sell for £2,000 - £3,000. William Bragge's drawings of his rare pipe collection, expected to sell for £2,000 - £4,000 failed to find a buyer. 

The sale was from the collection of renowned "Pipe Man," Trevor Barton. Owning what was arguably the finest, most wide-ranging collection of pipes and smoking memorabilia in the world, Barton was a familiar figure in the stalls of the Portobello and Bermondsey markets of London. 

Barton's pipes come from all over the globe and reflect over fifty years of passionate pipe collecting and a lifetime of a travel. He was a leading member of the exclusive "Academie Internationale de la Pipe."

Several fine Nguni pipes from Southern Africa were included in the sale. Dating from 19th century, the works were finely inlaid with lead and depict objects such as clocks, cannons and trains. Others featured more traditional subjects, carved human figures. 

Results from the sale can be found at Christie's website, www.christies.com

Source: Christie's London

Photo courtesy of Christie's London

Zemanek-Münster Tribal Arts Auction Preview: Lot 462

Neck rest with zoomorphic form. Probably Ngoni, Malawi (although described as Nguni, South Africa).

Wood, small residues of dark brown patina, red glass beads (eyes), four conical-shaped legs supporting a slightly vaulted pillow with stylized head and tail, the body marked by a tapering abdomen with incised triangular ornaments and small diamond-shaped opening, slightly dam., scratches, paint rubbed off, small cavity (left foreleg); the neck rest belonged to Wilhelm Pohlig, a Sanitary Sergeant serving in the Guardian Forces of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa. Wilhelm Pohlig's son, Helmut, was six years old, when the colony collapsed after several years of grim resistance. He and his mother were the last citizens of the empire who left the colony. The death of his father, who died of a severe malaria attack in a British Military Hospital, prevented them to leave the country in time. Just on personal intervention of General Lettow-Vorbeck a last ship was allowed to land and embark Helmut and his mother in the harbour of Dar es Salam. Neckrests served as pillows and preserved the elaborate and artificial coiffures during sleep.

Length: 36 cm; Height: 17 cm.

Estimate: 30,000 - 60,000 €