Zulu or Tsonga prestige staff, South Africa

33.5 inches / 85.2cm tall
wood, copper
late 19th - early 20th century
ex James Stephenson
ex Paul Rossi
ex private collection, US

A beautiful and fairly simple two-toned staff with a nice addition of a wonderful hammered copper band underneath the finial, and a metal cap on the bottom. Staffs from various cultures were the first thing I actively started collecting to form assemblages of and my South African staffs and knobkerries have always been my favorites in the group.

Once these staffs have been removed from the context of their making and use it becomes almost impossible to ascertain their exact provenance, and in consequence their exact use and significance is equally obscured. In the Zulu Kingdom and other hierarchically ordered southern African societies in the 19th century such staffs would have been prestige items, indicating the high or special status according to the chiefs, heads of families, or ritual specialist.

$500 plus shipping

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