View 2012-6-65 - Figurative staff (view 3)

Description

[Source - Maritz, N.G. Relics of War: A Collection of 19th Century Artefacts from British South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. Pretoria: Salut Africa CC, 2008, used without alteration by JAG, 2015: JAG Description: Figurative staff, North Nguni, 19th Century; Material: Wood]

Acquisition

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2015: Acquired from: Maritz bought this staff from Andrew Newall a dealer in furniture, porcelain, silver and decorative arts in Cape Town, South Africa and Michael Graham-Stewart, is a London-based art dealer.]

Attributions and conjectures

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2015: Object notes: Sandra Klopper discusses whether these figurative staffs should be classified as ‘Tsonga’ or ‘North Nguni’ by (Klopper 1989). See also Brenthurst catalogue entries e.g. JL-C-18 which is classified as Tsonga/North Nguni - ‘produced for the tourist trade.’]

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).]

Additional Title Information

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA in 2015: Item named ‘Fig Type 6’ by Nessa Leibhammer.]