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National Museum Of African Art Collection

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Head, 15th-17th century. Creator: Unknown

Head, 15th-17th century. Creator: Unknown
Stone head, withe realistically carved features of eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair and beard. The hair and beard are finely cross hatched. The eyes are closed

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Salt cellar, 16th century. Creator: Unknown

Salt cellar, 16th century. Creator: Unknown
Ivory, circular salt cellar without a lid. The carved surface depicts human-like male figures in European dress with wings riding backwards on horses

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Male figure, Possibly 16th-17th century. Creator: Unknown

Male figure, Possibly 16th-17th century. Creator: Unknown
Stone standing male figure with a central crest hairstyle, protruding almond eyes, broad nostrils and an open mouth with teeth

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Hunting horn, Late 15th century. Creator: Unknown

Hunting horn, Late 15th century. Creator: Unknown
Ivory end blown horn with segmented horizontal carvings in tiers from the top to the bottom. The figures are of animals and humans. There are also plant forms (trees) and letters (Greek)

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Crest mask, 18th century. Creator: Unknown

Crest mask, 18th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy cone shaped mask with a human face, crocodiles issuing from the nostrils and snakes descending from the top projection

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Ingots, 13th-17th century. Creator: Unknown

Ingots, 13th-17th century. Creator: Unknown
Small copper ingot currency or croisettes of the HX type. This group of 5 ingots shows stable oxidation with some minor pitting. Mold form ridges are visible on the underside

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Processional cross, 15th century. Creator: Unknown

Processional cross, 15th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy 1 piece processional cross composed of an openwork circular form of radiating miniature crosses, a central equal armed cross and semicircular brackets topped by scrolled hooks

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Hand cross, 15th century. Creator: Unknown

Hand cross, 15th century. Creator: Unknown
Light weight, smooth iron, slender cross with copper inlay spots at the arm ends. A tabot in open box form is at the base of the vertical portion

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Weight, 15th-early 18th century. Creator: Unknown

Weight, 15th-early 18th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy triangular geometric weight with beveled notched edges, incised designs and central hole

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Female figure, 10th-15th century. Creator: Unknown

Female figure, 10th-15th century. Creator: Unknown
Ceramic reclining female figure on a slab form bed with one hand under her head and the other on her stomach, and both legs bent

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Commemorative trophy head, Late 15th-early 16th century. Creator: Unknown

Commemorative trophy head, Late 15th-early 16th century. Creator: Unknown
Naturalistic human head with circular opening in the top of the tiered twisted-strand hairstyle. A beaded collar covers the neck

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Jar, ca. 1880. Creator: Unknown

Jar, ca. 1880. Creator: Unknown
Light colored bowl widening out from its base to the middle and then gradually narrowing towards the top. A series of incised parallel horizontal lines go around the shoulder

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Jar, 13th-15th century. Creator: Unknown

Jar, 13th-15th century. Creator: Unknown
Red colored bowl with lightly incised parallel lines around the rim

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Pipe, Mid-late 19th century. Creator: Unknown

Pipe, Mid-late 19th century. Creator: Unknown
Wood pipe with high relief of a snake which extends along the stem and wraps around the bowl. Inlaid lead forms the pattern on the snake and the second snake on the pipe bowl

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Hand cross, 16th century. Creator: Unknown

Hand cross, 16th century. Creator: Unknown
Iron cross with a cylindrical shaft with cube base, and topped by a flat openworked cross with arms of equal length

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Prayer staff finial, 17th century. Creator: Unknown

Prayer staff finial, 17th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy cylindrical shaft with three rings supporting a T- shaped top with cross base

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Processional cross, 14th-15th century. Creator: Unknown

Processional cross, 14th-15th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy cross with a central four-cross openwork design encircled by openwork triangular patterns. A hollow tubular shaft would have fit over the end of a pole to be carried aloft during

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Commemorative head, Late 17th-early 18th century. Creator: Unknown

Commemorative head, Late 17th-early 18th century. Creator: Unknown
Low fired ceramic head with small clusters of hair, a triangular hole in the back and an abraded area on its proper left cheek

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Grave object, ca. 1800. Creator: Unknown

Grave object, ca. 1800. Creator: Unknown
Columnar shaped object divided into four horizontal registers and opened at both ends. The top and third registers are decorated with interlace patterns

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Snuff container, Mid-19th century. Creator: Unknown

Snuff container, Mid-19th century. Creator: Unknown
Snuff container composed of a gourd covered in glass bead netting with bottom beaded fringe. The gourd hangs suspended from a glass bead necklace

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Caftan, Mid-19th century. Creator: Unknown

Caftan, Mid-19th century. Creator: Unknown
Long saffron yellow colored gown of richly brocaded cloth with wide bell-shaped sleeves and no collar. It is decorated with a double row of buttons worked in thread down to the waist

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Plaque, Mid-16th to 17th century. Creator: Unknown

Plaque, Mid-16th to 17th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy plaque showing a man with a rattle, a net covered sphere, in outstretched hands. Incised foliate background with two relief rosettes. Red clay patina

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Icon, Late 17th century. Creator: Unknown

Icon, Late 17th century. Creator: Unknown
Distemper on wood diptych composed of St. George and the Dragon on the proper right panel, with an equestrian saint on a white horse spearing a serpent on a background of red seperated by a green

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Bartmann jug, ca. 1800. Creator: Unknown

Bartmann jug, ca. 1800. Creator: Unknown
Large stoppered brown colored ovoid shaped vessel with a burnished body, a handle and an impression of a bearded face just below the neck

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Pendant, Mid-16th to mid-17th century. Creator: Unknown

Pendant, Mid-16th to mid-17th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy D-form center loop pendant with three figures of equal size. The center figure is of a king (oba) supported by attendants

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Bell, 18th century. Creator: Unknown

Bell, 18th century. Creator: Unknown
Cast copper alloy four-sided flat topped bell with iron clapper

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Pipe, Early-late 19th century. Creator: Unknown

Pipe, Early-late 19th century. Creator: Unknown
Pipe composed of a greyish black globular ceramic bowl and a long red-brown wood stem. The exterior of the bowl is a black burnished slip, and a band of herringbone pattern is incised below the rim

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Female figure, Early 19th century. Creator: Unknown

Female figure, Early 19th century. Creator: Unknown
Ivory standing female figure on a square base holding a plain, broad C-shaped object in her proper right hand, with a center crest hairstyle, a representation of strands of beads at the neck, waist

Background imageNational Museum Of African Art Collection: Hand cross, ca. 16th-17th century. Creator: Unknown

Hand cross, ca. 16th-17th century. Creator: Unknown
Wood cross with triangular ends, an open circle connecting the arms, a square form on the lower shaft, and an overall dark, smooth patina with circle-dot motifs


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