FIGURAL XHOSA PIPE
19TH CENTURY, SOUTHERN AFRICA
Estimate: £2,000 - £3,000
Auction: 13 March 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
carved wood and lead, the long slender stem terminating in a finely carved human figure serving as the bowl, the male is shown nude, the hands held into the sides, with lead inlay indicating the waistband, necklace and armlets
Dimensions
57cm long
Provenance
Wills Cigarette and Tobacco Company Pipe Collection, England (ref 1233)
Galerie Valluet, Paris
Bernice & Terry Pethica Collection, United Kingdom
Published:
Klopper, Nettleton and Pethica, The Art of Southern Africa, The Terence Pethica Collection 2007, n° 105
Footnote
“Because the vocational training offered by German missionaries working in the Eastern Cape area often included training in metal in ay techniques, many of the pipes produced by Xhosa-speaking carvers sport inlaid details depicting items of adornment like armbands and beadwork that are stylistically typical for the region. Although the display of genitalia in the depiction of mature men is uncommon, the fact that this is an older man is suggested both through the stocky proportions of the figure and the possible allusion to a headring. The heading, which was developed into an elaborate art form among some communities from the southern Natal region, may also have been used intermittently in the Eastern Cape. A mark of marital status in the Zulu kingdom north of the Thukela river, it was a variable index of age and status among several other groups in the area. Pipes with figurative bowls are likely to have been commissioned by men rather than women. The latter generally smoked from elegantly proportioned but comparatively simple, long-stemmed pipes.” (Klopper, Nettleton and Pethica 2007).