Object Notes

This vessel depicts a seated male wearing a hat and jacket with carefully rendered details such as decoration on the shoulders, buttons, and buttonholes. The figure holds a flask for liquor in one hand and a drinking cup or glass in the other.

Holiday feasts are occasions to adorn the dinner table with the best serving dishes and platters. Before the introduction of enamel wares, housewives among the Dan, We, Grebo, and neighboring peoples in Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire displayed their large, highly prized wooden bowls before filling them with rice.

Women among the Ida ou Nadif and Ida ou Zeddoute peoples of North Africa wear dye-decorated headcloths on special occasions. The rectangular or roughly U-shaped patterns, created by tying the cloth and dyeing it with henna, appear tan, reddish brown, and bluish black on a natural ground.

The arched neck of this harp ends in a sculpted head with eyes made of precious imported blue beads. The shape of the head is echoed in the lozenge-shaped sounding box covered with leather and decorated with geometric designs.

This cup portrays a standing female figure with arms akimbo, or on her hips, and her face and torso decorated with raised scarification patterns. The lateral triangles formed by her bent arms echo the inverted triangle of her torso. Instead of being carved on a platform, she stands firm and perfectly balanced on her two feet.

On ceremonial occasions, men and women in many parts of Africa drank palm wine or locally brewed beer from plain or elaborately decorated cups, according to the consumer's social status.

African women in traditional societies enhanced their natural beauty with scarification and cosmetic preparations. For example, they applied black kohl to their eyes, painted their faces and bodies with a reddish powder or paste, and moisturized their skin with shea butter.

Kuba drinking vessels were carved out of wood or animal horn and decorated with geometric and figurative motifs derived from body scarification and textile designs. This cup is distinguished by its handle, which is carved in the form of a hand. Such cups were emblems of a warriors' association whose elite members had severed an enemy's hand in battle. 

On ceremonial occasions, men and women in many parts of Africa drank palm wine or locally brewed beer from plain or elaborately decorated cups, according to the consumer's social status.