Beadwork plaque in wooden frame [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 8/7/2005]

Collection type: Object
Description: Beadwork plaque in wooden frame [L.Ph 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 8/7/2005]
Long description: Beadwork plaque in wooden frame. The centre of the image is a winged lion with an open book. The lion is the symbol of St Mark. The border is a wreath of leaves and flowers. The left edge is split. The beads are attached in a mosaic style. [MJD 24/10/2014]
Geographical reference: South Africa
Africa > Southern Africa > South Africa; Unknown
Cultural groups: Nguni
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date / Period: Date made: Possibly before 1881
Date collected: ?Prior to 1881
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884
Materials and processes: Material Bead, Material Glass, Material Wood Plant, Process Beadwork, Process Carved
Dimensions: Width: max 330 mm, Length: max 495 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.117.102 PR no.: 31/ 12099
Research and responses: In July 1884 this object was listed as having been re-received at South Kensington Museum [to judge by the second green book entry, 208.6878] which suggests that it had been removed by Pitt Rivers temporarily at an earlier date. [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
For a similar object, see 1884.117.36. [JC 7 2 2001]
Associated publications: Illustrated in black and white as figure 41 on page 60 of Beads and Beadwork of East and South Africa (Shire Ethnography 3), by Margret Carey (Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, 1986). Caption reads: 'Wooden plaque depicting the Lion of Venice in beads applied like a mosaic, described as South African Bantu work of the 1880s.' In her text (same page), Carey writes: 'Following contacts with Europeans[,] goods began to be made for a western market. Some were the product of mission stations, where Africans were taught "useful" skills. In Victorian and Edwardian times, mission schools supplied goods for fund-raising bazaars, and some beadwork would have been included. A beaded plaque depicting the Lion of St Mark, described as "Kaffir, from the borders of Kaffirland", predates 1884. It is in the style of Berlin woolwork of the period and must have come from a mission.' [JC 7 2 2001] Illustrated in black and white as Figure 1.2 on page 3 of 'Gender in the Making, Trading and Uses of beads: An Introductory Essay', by Lidia D. Sciama, in Lidia D. Sciama and Joanne B. Eicher (eds), Beads and Bead Makers: Gender, Material Culture and Meaning (Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women, Vol. 19), Oxford: Berg (1998), pp. 1–44. Caption (same page): 'Figure 1.2 The Lion of Saint Mark (Oxford, Pitt-Rivers [sic] Museum. From a South African Mission c. 1890).' [JC 12 8 2015]

Search terms: Picture and Graphic Art, Trade, Plaque