On view
African Art
Taampha (vessel lid),
before 1950s
Artist unrecorded
Woyo
1998-563
John B. Elliott was a lifelong art collector with interests spanning the world. His bequest to the Princeton University Art Museum included 250 works from central, western, and southern Africa, including these objects from Congo that evince Elliott’s admiration for artistry and craftsmanship across media. This carved wooden lid for a ceramic food container is decorated with finely rendered symbolic motifs that represent Woyo proverbs. The round cosmetic box, with a square top and bottom carved with rich geometric designs, recalls a common Kuba basketry form. The textural variety of ornamentation on the surface of the drinking horn resembles scarification patterns, a form of body decoration among Kuba and Luluwa communities. Copper alloy cast into ingots (called Katanga crosses after the copper-mining region in Democratic Republic of the Congo), anklets, and other objects made from this valuable material were long used as currency throughout Africa.
More Context
Handbook Entry
This sculpted lid for a ceramic food container was used as a visual means of communication. The images, symbolizing proverbs, were intended to restore peace during domestic quarrels or to endorse the status of the chief. In this example, the large sculpted shell in the center represents the proverb "You cannot fill a living snail with medicine." This can be interpreted as meaning "I am still alive, so heed my advice." The introduction of plastic and metal cooking utensils has meant the loss of this form of visual wisdom.
More About This Object
Information
Title
Taampha (vessel lid)
Dates
before 1950s
Maker
Medium
Wood
Dimensions
7.8 × 20.7 × 21.7 cm (3 1/16 × 8 1/8 × 8 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951
Object Number
1998-563
Place Made
Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Type
Materials
Techniques
Subject
John B. Elliott (1928-1997), New York, NY by 1989; bequeathed to the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, 1998.
- "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. 77
-
"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 61 (2002): p. 49-99.
, p. 73 - Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 58
