Lot 107
Southeast Africa, Tanzania, Zigua (Wazigua) people, ca. 19th to early 20th century CE. An unusual glass medicinal bottle covered with clay and a wooden figural head stopper. The green glass is from a beer or soda bottle with the typical cylindrical body and narrow neck. The exterior is nearly completely covered with a cotton fiber and a thick mud-straw application. The removable head stopper is mounted on a long dowel to use as both a stirrer and lid. The rounded face is stylized and carved with large ears, slightly open mouth, broad nose, and the eyes are inset with white glass beads. Carving the lids and stoppers of containers into ancestral figures or spirits imbued the vessel with power and made the medicinal substances even more potent. Traditionally horn or calabash gourd containers were used for storing medicinal substances to cure the sick or cast spells, but evidently the convenience of glass bottles and decline in animal populations in the 20th century contributed to a creative use of new materials. Size: 2.25" Diameter x 10.75" H (5.7 cm x 27.3 cm)
Provenance: private Jersey City, New Jersey, USA collection; ex-Marc Assayag collection
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#169902
- Condition: Stable pressure fissures on the wood stopper and surface abrasions, dark patina throughout. Flaking and losses to mud and cotton layers, but bottle is intact and very good.
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