The body of this horn snuff container is adorned with a fine relief carving of a female face with a head crest. The surface of the container is decorated with a central band of delicate cross-hatched designs, and black and white glass beads embellish the raffia fibre strap. The stopper of the container fits neatly into the receptacle.
Ex Private Collection, UK
H (Excl. Stand): 6cm
W (Incl. Stand): 5.5cm
Snuff, a preparation of powdered and processed tobacco, has been widely used in Africa since Europeans introduced tobacco in the sixteenth-century. The act of taking and sharing snuff, a substance connected to the ancestral realm, unifies the social and the spiritual.
References
British Museum, ‘Smoking and Snorting Tobacco in South Africa’ https://britishmuseum.tumblr.com/post/156938048217/smoking-and-snorting-tobacco-in-south-africa
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