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
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.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
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