Description
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.
Provenance
Private collection, England, by 1990; sold, Christie’s, South Kensington, Tribal Art sale ETH 3927, Oct. 2, 1990, lot 266, as “An Unusual Southern African Headrest;” to Kevin Conru, Tribal Art, London; sold to the Art Institute, 1996.
Accession Number
145678
Medium
Wood
Dimensions
17.8 × 47 × 19.7 cm (7 × 18 1/2 × 7 3/4 in.)
Classification
furniture
Credit Line
Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
