Item 2012-6-112 - Executioner's knobkierie

Description

[Source - Phillipa van Straaten, curator of the Traditional Collections at JAG, for FHYA using JAG materials, 2017: Executioner's knobkierie, Northern Nguni, 19th century; Description: Carved short-handled knobkierie with oversized knob, heavy; Dimensions: Length 57cm Material: Wood]

Acquisition

[Source - Phillipa van Straaten, curator of the Traditional Collections at JAG, for FHYA using JAG materials, 2017: Acquired from: Maritz acquired this item from Kevin Conru, an American dealer of African and Oceanic art based in the UK and in Brussels. Conru was previously the head of the African and Oceanic Departments of Bonham’s auction house. Now a private dealer, he has assembled an important collection of early Southern African art. See Conru, K., Klopper, S and Nel, K. 2002. The Art of Southeast Africa from the Conru Collection. (Information provided by Karel Nel, 12 October 2014).The item was then purchased by the Anglo American Johannesburg Centenary Trust (AAJCT) from Maritz, and then donated to JAG by the AAJCT.]

Attributions and conjectures

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2017: Comments on classification: In his ‘A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa’, Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Ethnological Publications, Vol. 5, Pretoria, Government Printer, (1935): 7, 70-83, national government ethnologist, Nicholas Van Warmelo did not use the term “North Nguni”. He grouped people living both north and south of the Thukela, under one umbrella term, “Natal Nguni”, based on linguistic affinity. His classification was adapted by the ethnology curator, Margaret Shaw, in her 1958 “System of Cataloguing Ethnographic Material in Museums” which determined that items from the region were to be classified as “Natal Nguni: Zulu and others (not differentiated).” According to art historian, Anitra Nettleton, the classificatory system used by art galleries and museum shifted from Shaw’s model to the one where “Natal Nguni” fell away and was replaced by “North/Northern Nguni” for KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland because scholars found it difficult to distinguish items from adjacent areas, or emmigrant people from those from the KZN region. Scholars working with the JAG materials used broad ethno-linguistic categories (Zulu, Xhosa, Tsonga, Shona, Sotho, Tswana) to identify the makers/users of the objects, all of which came to JAG without much by way of provenance, and identification was based on factors such as object type, materials, formal composition, style and surface patterning (emails A. Nettleton to N. Leibhammer, 25 and 28 November 2014).]