Cleveland Museum of Art

Snuff Container

Date: 1800s–1900s
Medium: Gourd and copper alloy
Culture: Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe or Mozambique, Northern Nguni-style or Shona-style maker
Department: African Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 168421

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The shape and material of gourd snuff containers—like a woman’s womb, the gourd contains and nurtures the seed—suggest they were made for female users and allude to procreation and fecundity. The snuff and tobacco held in this container were believed to enable communication between humans and ancestors.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Provenance: 1981–2007: Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, New York, NY | 2007: (Sotheby's, Paris, France, Sept. 10, 2007, lot 96) | 2010: (Jacaranda Tribal Art Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 2010–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH