Snuff box

Snuff box

[ Source of title : Nessa Leibhammer using JAG materials ]

Object

Textual record

Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG)

JL-A-55

Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Unless otherwise stated the copyright of all material on the FHYA resides with the contributing institution/custodian.

Description [Source - Debra Pryor for FHYA, 2022, using spreadsheet created by Nessa Leibhammer for SAHRIS, from JAG materials in 2015: Object description: Head and torso of man. His arms are at this sides and hands held in front of stomach. His eyes are inlaid white beads and there are inlaid white beads around his neck and wrists. He also wears long strands of beads around his neck which drag on teh ground in front. Hair, a moustach and a beard are indicated in a darker substance. Object code: JL-A-55; Object common name: male figure; Object local name: ; Object form type: male figure; Object material type: clay, pencil, thread, beads (clay), glass (beads), plastic (beads), porcelain (buttons; U5 Technique: pottery, beadwork; Colours: Brown, orangy brown, turquoise, black, white; Inscriptions: Label uderneath reads: BACA (?) Collected Umtata 1974. Said to originate house of Khotsa Sethuntsa; Dimension comment: 17,5 x 12,1 x 7,5; objectage: late 20th century; Production place: Eastern Cape/KwaZulu-natal; Cultural association: Baca? [Bhaca?]; Place of use: Eastern Cape/KwaZulu-natal; Provenance: .]

Attributions and conjectures [Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2017: Comments on classification: In his ‘A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa’, Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Ethnological Publications, Vol. 5, Pretoria, Government Printer, (1935): 7, 70-83, national government ethnologist, Nicholas Van Warmelo did not use the term “North Nguni”. He grouped people living both north and south of the Thukela, under one umbrella term, “Natal Nguni”, based on linguistic affinity. His classification was adapted by the ethnology curator, Margaret Shaw, in her 1958 “System of Cataloguing Ethnographic Material in Museums” which determined that items from the region were to be classified as “Natal Nguni: Zulu and others (not differentiated).” According to art historian, Anitra Nettleton, the classificatory system used by art galleries and museum shifted from Shaw’s model to the one where “Natal Nguni” fell away and was replaced by “North/Northern Nguni” for KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland because scholars found it difficult to distinguish items from adjacent areas, or emmigrant people from those from the KZN region. Scholars working with the JAG materials used broad ethno-linguistic categories (Zulu, Xhosa, Tsonga, Shona, Sotho, Tswana) to identify the makers/users of the objects, all of which came to JAG without much by way of provenance, and identification was based on factors such as object type, materials, formal composition, style and surface patterning (emails A. Nettleton to N. Leibhammer, 25 and 28 November 2014). Jonathan Lowen employed Margaret Carey, a British ethnologist, to catalogue his collection collection in the winter of 1983-84. She classified many of the objects as 'Zulu' (sic) simply because of a lack of information about the objects. (Rhoda Rosen citing Sandra Klopper.)]

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Snuff box