Scepter/Tobacco Box

Artist Chokwe people

Place of OriginAfrica, Kingdom of Chokwe (modern Angola & Congo)

Datelate 19th century, probably before 1887

Dimensions18 × 3 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (45.7 × 8.9 × 5.7 cm)

Mediumcarved wood mounted on an iron spike

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2008.120

Not on View

DescriptionStaff: Cylindrical tobacco container carved from a single piece of wood, supported on a metal spike. A three-dimensional male figure supports a large flat rectangular panel carved in low relief on all sides with eighteen figures in various poses, which in turn supports a hollowed-out cylindrical vessel carved in high, openwork relief with six figures (see discussion of iconography)

Label TextTwenty-five figures of men and women are carved on this ornate ceremonial scepter. At the base a sculpture of a king supports everything above, alluding to the royal nature of the object. At the top is a hollow cylinder that contained tobacco, which was shared communally. The figures around the cylinder and those on the front panel stand with their arms in expressive positions. They may represent a procession of royal ancestors. The reverse panel (see illustration) depicts Lweji, the mythical ancestress of the Luba, in the traditional pose of mourning: arms propped on knees and hands on head. The reclining figures may be newly dead chiefs in the process of joining their ancestors.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 55, repr. (col.).Comparative ReferencesSee also Boris Wastiau, Chokwe (Visions of Africa; Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2006) pls. 29-32, 34 show tobacco/snuff boxes, some of them mounted as "scepters."

See also Manuel Jordán (ed.), Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples (1999)

See also Reinhild Kauenhoven-Janzen, "Chokwe Thrones," African Arts, vol.l XIV, no. 3 (May 1981) 69-74, 92.

See also Marie-Louise Bastin, Escultura Tshokwe, exhibition catalogue, Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lisboa (Lisbon, 1999) 14, cat. 35.