Currently not on view
Double headrest with snuff containers (isigqiki)
Among the most elegant sculptural objects from southern Africa, headrests supported the head and protected elaborate coiffures during sleep. By encouraging a deep sleep, they were believed to promote dreams, an important function for the Tsonga and northern Nguni, who communicated with deceased family members while in a dreamlike state. This double headrest with small bulbous snuff containers at each end was intended for a husband and wife. The tobacco mixture held in the containers would have been smoked before bed, producing a mild hallucinogenic effect for the sleeping couple.
Information
late 19th–20th century
Africa, Mozambique, Northeastern Transvaal
[possibly Peter Adler, London]; John B. Elliott, New York, NY by 1987; Princeton University Art Museum, 1998
Margaret Rose Vendryes, "Africa in repose: stools and headrests," <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 58 no. 1/2 (1999): p. 38-53., p. 48, fig. 16
3039 1999"Selected checklist of objects in the collection of African art," <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University</em> 58, no. 1/2 (1999): p. 77–83., p. 83
3043 1999<p>"The checklist of the John B. Elliott Bequest," <em>Record of the Princeton University Art Museum </em>61 (2002): p. 49-99.</p>, p. 61
3025 2002<em>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</em> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 172 (illus.)
474 2007<em>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </em>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 222
1994 2013
