Item JL-H-9 - Snuff-spoon

Additional information

[Source - Sarah Schaefer for FHYA, 2020, transcription of the Brenthurst catalogue, 'Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art', produced by the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1991: Snuff-spoon; bone, pigment; 15,6 x 1,8 x 0,6; North Nguni/South Nguni; JL-H-9]

Physical characteristics

[Source - Brenthurst Catalogue Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art produced by the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1991. Subsequent to this the collection has been entered onto the CoJ Star database using the Brenthurst Catalogue as the reference: Dimensions: 15,6 x 1,8 x 0,6 cm Material: Bone, pigment]

Attributions and conjectures

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2017: Jonathan Lowen is an ex South African living in London. He sourced items from a wide range of places including antique dealers, markets such as Portabello Road, auction sales, etc. The collection was purchased by wealthy Johannesburg businessman and philanthropist, Harry Oppenheimer, and placed on on-term loan with the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) in 1987. (Info from Karel Nel to Nessa Leibhammer, 12 October 2014) See: also Sandra Klopper, ‘South Africa’s Culture of Collecting: The Unofficial History’, African Arts, Winter 2004, 18-24.]

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).

Jonathan Lowen employed Margaret Carey, a British ethnologist, to catalogue his collection collection in the winter of 1983-84. She classified many of the objects as 'Zulu' (sic) simply because of a lack of information about the objects. (Rhoda Rosen citing Sandra Klopper.)

For an extended version of this note on JAG classification see: 'JAG Classification Note' in Additional Resources]