On view
African Art
Apron,
late 19th–early 20th century
Artist unrecorded
Sotho
2019-9
In Sotho communities, beadwork was created by women and considered a form of personal expression. This belt consists of tightly coiled grass covered with fabric and beads. A matching apron attached to the belt was worn by the woman, usually married, around the front of her waist for modesty. The pink, green, and black colors and distinctive patterning identify this belt as being produced in the southern Drakensberg region of South Africa. The use of sinew rather than thread to attach the beads to both the belt and apron dates them to the early twentieth century or earlier.
Information
Title
Apron
Dates
late 19th–early 20th century
Maker
Medium
Glass beads, sinew, fiber, and seeds
Dimensions
14 × 20.3 cm (5 1/2 × 8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Mary Trumbull Adams Art Fund
Object Number
2019-9
Place Made
Africa, South Africa, Southern Drakensberg region
Techniques
Subject
Purchased by Dr. Crystal Cohen, London, UK, in South Africa; purchased by Dr. John Cassidy Ewart Kaufmann (1924-2013), London, Ontario; purchased by Avril von Hirschberg, Cape Town (d. 2016), via Carol Kaufmann, Curator of African Art, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, November 18, 1999; [purchased by Axis Gallery, New Jersey, before 2016]; purchased by the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, 2019.
