Stave (Osun) with elaborate puzzle-carving. Main shaft is carved in shape of a snake, the whole thing topped with a human head.
Labelled 'Thomas Colln, S. Nigeria 1910-13, 2239.293'
Wooden staff shaped like a snake swallowing a human figure. The body of the human figure is a rattle and has been carved with geometric patterns. The snake's body and head is also carved with patterns.
Wooden staff shaped like a snake swallowing a human figure. The body of the human figure is a rattle and has been carved with geometric patterns. The snake's body and head are also carved with patterns.
During the collections-based phase of the Museum Affordances Project 2018, photographs of some of these rattle staffs were shared on the project Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/reentanglements/).
In a comment on 01/10/2018, Adenike Cosgrove wrote: ' This looks to be an Edo ukhurhe rattle staff. You can read more about them here: https://www.imodara.com/.../nigeria-edo-ukhurhe-rattle.../'
These staffs (Z 20317 - Z 20342) appear to have been carved by the same hand, or in the same workshop and were collected by N.W. Thomas as a group. They are listed in Thomas' 1st catalogue (Doc.413) as entries 308-335, which are situated at the very back of the catalogue.