Headrest (Isicamelo or Isigqiki)
Northern Nguni
19th century
Medium
Wood
Dimensions
17.8 × 47 × 19.7 cm (7 × 18 1/2 × 7 3/4 in.)
Classification
furniture
Department
Arts of Africa
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
145678
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a neckrest formed part of a bride’s dowry. Though highly abstracted, the form of this example appropriately evokes a bull, a source of wealth and a means of ancestral communication. However, its exceptionally large size suggests that this neckrest may have been a nonfunctional prestige object in the treasury of a nobleman.