On view
Cosmetic box,
late 19th century
From 1885 until 1960, King Leopold II and later Belgium controlled present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and exploited its natural resources, including gold, diamonds, and copper. The mining industry in Congo is still notorious for its devastating environmental impact and its human rights abuses.
Colonialism in Congo, and elsewhere in Africa, relied on American investment. In 1919, Princeton University graduate Donald B. Doyle moved to the Kasai region of Belgian Congo to manage the Tshikapa Diamond Mines for Forminière, a mining company founded in 1906 with the funds of American industrialists. While stationed there, Joyce Doyle, Donald’s wife, amassed 150 objects, which she later donated to this Museum in memory of her husband. Her collection included this intricately carved square cosmetic box and base of a headrest consisting of two seated figures decorated with imported brass furniture tacks distinctive to Chokwe art. Joyce’s collecting depended upon the operations of the Tshikapa mines, and she urged prospectors traveling to the field to “bring me things that the Africans made and had used,” as she wrote in a statement sent to the Museum in 1976.
More Context
Handbook Entry
Kuba artists, including those of the Shoowa peoples, are known for their use of intricate geometric designs and unusual shapes. Boxes and vessels, such as the examples shown here, as well as cups, pipes, knives, and other domestic items, are carved with rich surface decorations in low relief. Each surface on the square box is carved in a different pattern to increase the work’s visual interest from many angles. Such intermingling of motifs is typical of Shoowa decoration. Atop the box is a carved weevil, or <em>ntshyeem</em>, an insect symbolically associated with the enduring powers of the king. The round box has a squared lid that incorporates an octagonal pattern to draw the viewer’s eye. The wooden boxes, created for personal prestige, would have contained razors, beads, costume elements, or twool, a red cosmetic powder obtained at great expense. Carved to give a sense of depth, the vessel or goblet displays an ornate surface overlaid with a repeating pattern of intertwined bands. The design reflects traditional Kuba textile patterns found on raffia pile and bark cloths.
Information
late 19th century
Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Acquired by Joyce K. Doyle in or near Tshikapa, Kasai region or Kinshasa, present-day Democratic Republic of Congo (former Belgian Congo), between 1919 and 1923; donated to the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, 1947.
- Sarah Brett-Smith, "The Doyle Collection of African Art," in "The Doyle Collection of African Art," special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 2 (1983): p. 2, 8-34., p. 22, fig. 14
- "Gifts of Mrs. Donald B. Doyle in memory of her husband Donald B. Doyle, Class of 1905," in "The Doyle Collection of African Art," special issue Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 2 (1983): p. 35-42., p. 41
- "Selected checklist of objects in the collection of African art," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 58, no. 1/2 (1999): p. 77–83., p. 79
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 297 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 332
