1948.2.135

Collection type

Object

Description

Deep everted wooden bowl on short cylindrical fenestrated pedestal foot with splaying base, stained black on the exterior [RTS 13/4/2005].

Long description

Oval bowl carved from a single block of wood and consisting of an everted flat-topped rim with narrow edge, on a deep body with concave sides that flare down to a low carination, then convexely in to the bowl underside. This has been set on top of a short cylindrical pedestal foot that flares out to a broad disc base with thick bevelled edge sloping in to a flat base. 2 oval windows have been cut into opposite sides of the pedestal, connecting at its centre; these have 2 concave scallops cut along the base. The bowl interior has sides that slope down and in to a flat base. The execution is somewhat irregular, and one side of the bowl sits higher than the other. The bowl interior, base underside and fenestrations have all been left the natural yellow colour of the wood (Pantone 7508C), while the top of the rim and exterior surfaces have been stained a dark brownish black (Pantone black 7C). The wood itself is soft and lightweight. The bowl is complete and intact, but has some kind of crack or flaw running around the base interior. There is some wear around the rim edges, and some of the stain colour has marked the foot underside, while vertical dribbles of stain are visible around the outer walls. It has a height of 254 mm, with an external rim diameter of 347 by 343 mm and mouth diameter of 290 mm; the pedestal is 107 mm wide and 105.6 mm thick, with a window cut through it 27 mm wide; the base of the foot measures 210 by 196 mm and is 23.5 mm thick [RTS 13/4/2005].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Cultural groups

Zande

Person

Field collector Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

PRM source Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1930

Date collected

1927 - 1930

Acquisition information

Found unentered: 1948

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Stained

Dimensions

Diameter: max 210 mm base, Height 254 mm, Diameter: max 347 mm, Diameter: max 290 mm mouth, Weight 1000 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1948.2.135

Research and responses

There is some relevant information listed in the RDF for 1970.38.1-12, relating to a series of Zande wooden food bowls and stools that were collected by Evans-Pritchard from near Yambio in the 1920's, in which he states that the objects were carved by specialists from several species of green timber, probably during the dry season, and were in use by the people from whom they were acquired. The black staining and polishing was done by the owners themselves.

This may be the type of bowl that Larken describes as follows: ".. more elaborate, and therefore,, in less general use, is a dish with a deep circular bowl, attractively curved, on a massive carved and sometimes pierced stem and a round base, in form resembling a goblet or fruit-stand, cut out of solid wood, about eighteen inches high and half as wide" (P.M. Larken, 1927, "Impressions of the Azande", Sudan Notes and Records X, p. 132).

For similar Zande bowls, but with pyramidal rather than cylindrical feet, see 1948.2.132 (with a solid foot), 1948.2.130 and 1948.2.135 (both with fenestrated feet) [RTS 12/4/2005].

Search terms: Vessel, Bowl