On view
Headrest,
late 19th–20th century
Placed under the ear and cheek or below the nape of the neck, these elegant headrests from southern Africa supported their owners’ heads and protected elaborate hairstyles during sleep. By encouraging a deep sleep, they were believed to promote dreams, an important function for the Tsonga and northern Nguni, who communicated with deceased family members while in a dreamlike state.
The design of headrests was often highly functional. The double headrest with bulbous snuff containers at each end was intended to hold a tobacco mixture for a couple to smoke before bed. The flat disk at the end of the headrest with the staff allowed the owner to attach a bundle to the headrest during travel. The rounded zoomorphic forms and raised geometric decorative patterns found on the Zulu headrests are associated with cattle, a historic source of wealth for the northern Nguni.
Information
late 19th–20th century
Africa, South Africa
[Unrecorded gallery, 8 Eaton Square, London, SW1W 9DB, UK, by 1983]; purchased by John B. Elliott (1928-1997), New York, NY, 1983 [1]; bequeathed to the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, 1998.
[1] Invoice dated March 9, 1983.
- Margaret Rose Vendryes, "Africa in repose: stools and headrests," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 58 no. 1/2 (1999): p. 38-53., p. 42, fig. 8
- "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
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"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 61 (2002): p. 49-99.
, p. 94 - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 286 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 141
