Headrest 19th century Nguni peoples This headrest has a horizontal orientation with four legs supporting a platform, semi-circular in profile, which is contained between the legs. The surface is flat, and there are rounded handles at either end that are slightly raised above the horizontal line of the platform. The form falls into a category of headrest commonly found south of the Zambezi River that do not have a columnar base (Nettleton, 2007: 247). The four bulbous legs evoke a fat and healthy quadruped—most likely a cow, given the vital significance of this animal in Nguni society. The surf

Headrest 19th century Nguni peoples This headrest has a horizontal orientation with four legs supporting a platform, semi-circular in profile, which is contained between the legs. The surface is flat, and there are rounded handles at either end that are slightly raised above the horizontal line of the platform. The form falls into a category of headrest commonly found south of the Zambezi River that do not have a columnar base (Nettleton, 2007: 247). The four bulbous legs evoke a fat and healthy quadruped—most likely a cow, given the vital significance of this animal in Nguni society. The surface of the legs, handles, and underbelly is decorated with deeply incised grooves that wrap around the form in parallel lines, creating a dramatic surface of smooth ridges that are shiny from handling and soft curves that are dark with patina. The top is undecorated, and the honey color of the wood is visible in contrast to the decorated areas, which are black with surface accretions. Headrests have been recorded in art traditions across Africa. More headrests have been collected from southern African peoples than in other regions of Africa (Nettleton, 2007: 247). Among the Nguni peoples, headrests have served to protect elaborate coiffures that can relay the status, gender, and age of the wearer. The designs developed by regional carvers are remarkably diverse in both form and style—see, for example, this elegant example in the Met's collection that features a storage compartment for the owner's valuables (, b). The distinctive style of this headrest—especially the surface patterning—allows us to attribute it to a known group of sculptors, active in the mid-nineteenth century in the vicinity of the former British colony of Natal, near present-day Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa (Catherine Elliot, personal correspondence, 11/04/18). Both regionally and internationally renowned for their skills in wood carving, these sculptors produced artwork for a loca

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