Lidded Vessel 19th century North Nguni peoples This four-legged vessel, carved from a single piece of wood with a separate cover, can be considered an Nguni master sculptor’s tour de force, primarily intended to dazzle and delight the viewer as a triumphant feat of woodcarving. The ovoid form of the container itself is supported by—and appears to float within—a pedestal superstructure with four square legs that has an anthropomorphic quality. The cover, surmounted by a large, rounded handle with knobs of wood at either side, completes the central oval form. The surface of both the vessel and c

Lidded Vessel 19th century North Nguni peoples This four-legged vessel, carved from a single piece of wood with a separate cover, can be considered an Nguni master sculptor’s tour de force, primarily intended to dazzle and delight the viewer as a triumphant feat of woodcarving. The ovoid form of the container itself is supported by—and appears to float within—a pedestal superstructure with four square legs that has an anthropomorphic quality. The cover, surmounted by a large, rounded handle with knobs of wood at either side, completes the central oval form. The surface of both the vessel and cover has been filled with deeply incised lines of rounded and soft marks that run in close parallel lines, following the overall shape of the vessel. These lines of surface decoration are arranged into blocks that visually juxtapose verticals and horizontals, and they may be intended to emulate the appearance of woven fabric. The direction of the lines on the inner container are also mirrored on the outer support, increasing the sense of dimensionality. This dramatic decorative surface program is a distinctive characteristic of the works in this school of Nguni sculpture. The vessel is one of the largest and most significant in a defined corpus of related sculptures that have been attributed to a number of Zulu-speaking carvers, active in the mid-nineteenth century in the vicinity of the former British colony of Natal, in present day Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa (Catherine Elliot, personal correspondence, 11/04/18). The headrest () is also considered part of this group. These craftspeople were regionally renowned for their skill in wood carving, and the sculptor responsible for this work would have produced carvings both for a local elite, such as the Zulu King Mpande kaSenzangakhona (–1872), and for a European clientele, an increasing presence at Port Natal from the 1820s onwards. Major works of sculpture by this group were first exhibited in Europe at wo

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