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AFRICANA NOTES AND
NEWS - Nine Volumes
HEAD-RESTS IN THE
AFRICANA MUSEUM
Two covers of nine Africana Notes and News offered - Text
English
HEAD-RESTS IN THE
AFRICANA MUSEUM - ANN WANLESS
On offer a complete set of nine, largely unknown volumes of AFRICANA NOTES AND NEWS
that detail 308 African headrests. They include those acquired, donated
or lent to the City of Johannesburg's Africana Museum, prior to 1985.
Included are Museum of Man and Science examples, an entity that had
been absorbed by the Africana Museum. Author and museum anthropologist Ann Wanless, describes each object in her paper
entitled HEAD-RESTS IN THE AFRICANA MUSEUM.
The nine volumes were published between 1985 - 1990. Each booklet details
between 30 to 37 of the neck
rests, all of which are illustrated in these volumes. The overwhelming
majority of headrests shown are of Southern African origin. However, representative examples
also include those from
Egypt, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Congo (Zaire) and East Africa.
Tribal names used for identification include Ambo, Basotho, Chopi, Malaboch (Xananwa), Pedi, Rozwi
(Lozi or Rotse),
Shangaan, Shona, Swazi, Thonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
Typical page layouts with very detailed information.
Part I includes the introduction and
headrests of 13 categories. The Reverend A A Jaques collected a large number
of these headrests. Parts II, III, IV and V detail Shangaan head
rests, a name given to the former Transvaal Tsonga (Shangaan - Tshangana -
non Nguni Thonga). Here again, many of the 130 examples shown were also collected by
Rev. Jaques. Part VI includes Shona, Swazi and Thonga
neck rests, a number from the Clem Webb Collection. Part VII is a
continuation of Thonga that begins with headrests collected by Henri Junod.
Part VIII and IX detail the balance of the Tsonga examples and for the
most part, they were collected Rev Jaques.
Examples of fantastic neck rests detailed in the 9
Volumes
Other collectors or donors to
the Africana Museum's neck rest collection included those of Mrs. C. Albert, Mr.W.G.
Barnard, Dr. P. Becker, P.W. Cahill, Mrs B. Dyer, Mr. Edmund, Mr. A. O. Fischbeck,
David Foote, Dr. E.P. Friede, Miss J Gluckman, A Loewenstein, Marievale
Mine, Chief Mhlaba, Mr. E. Miller, Miss G. Nicholas, Miss. H. Oliver, E.A.
Packer, Mrs. Mary Packer, Emma Porta, Rev Noel
Roberts, Mrs A. Rudnick, Mrs. H. Shires, Dr. G. Theiler, Charles Willis, King Yeta III,
the Paris Evangelical Missionaries, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute of Northern
Rhodesia and the Suisse Romande Mission School.
The preeminent collector of the collections was
Reverand Alexandre Auguste Jaques, born in 1895. Like his
father Numa Jaques, he spent much of his life working in and around Elim Mission Suisse Romande, located southeast of Makhado
South Africa (formerly Louis Trichardt). Jaques collected neck rests in and
around Elim,
Bushbuck Ridge (Pilgrims Rest), Lemana and mission stations in southern
Mozambique, from the mid 1920's until 1948. A fellow missionary
handed out mealie meal to anyone who could bring him something in exchange,
during the Mozambique drought of 1928.
(So as not to encourage begging)
From the exchanges - Jaques managed to purchase an amount of neck rests. In
1940, he exhibited his collection at the Africana Museum and wrote an article
for the Sunday Times. Therein he created the first formal
classification system for southern African neck rests. He travelled to
Switzerland in 1949, where he died of cancer. In 1951, his widow lent his personal
collection of 112 headrests to the Africana Museum. This loan was recalled in 1987
and the bulk of neck rests sold to the Johannesburg Art Gallery. In
1991 The Jaques Collection made a second début, taking center stage at the
Art and Ambiguity - Perspectives on the
Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art exhibition. Ann
Wanless wrote a paper therein entitled; Public Pleasures: smoking and
snuff-taking in Southern Africa..
Also illustrated in the Africana Notes and News
volumes are 16 Tsonga neck rests donated to the Museum by Mrs Webb in the 1930's. These were part of a
far larger Southern African collection, which included wooden
artefacts and beadwork. Mr.
Clem Webb traveled to England with his collection, where it was exhibited at the
1886 Colonial and Indian
Exhibition.
Reverend Buchler also donated 11
neck rests to the Africana Museum in 1941. He had lived
amongst the Shangaan (Transvaal Tsonga) at Bushbuck Ridge.
As mentioned above, three neck rests
were collected by Henri Junod (Henri Alexandre Junod). These were donated by his son, H. P.
Junod.
Take note that Sothebys sold a number of neck rests
attributed to the Rev Jaques at auction. In each case
Jaques name was incorrectly spelt A. A. Jacques, as was the name of the
collection. I.e.; The Jacques Collection. These spellings should be corrected, as
the misinformation has replicated itself on websites and printed matters.
The complete nine-volume set of AFRICANA NOTES AND
NEWS -
HEAD-RESTS IN THE AFRICANA MUSEUM is
an important work that specifically highlights the largest group of early
collected Southern African neck rests ever
assembled. Though the imagery could have been better, these represent the core reference to Southern African headrests.
They are of paramount importance and make an important
addition to headrest knowledge and tribal art libraries. The notes enable
the reader to correctly attribute an
object to a tribe - circa 1930 - and visualize what is seemingly a countless amount of unique forms. Uncovering a full set of these volumes is all but unheard of
and for some time have not been available at source. We have two sets on offer.
One full set of 9 original
volumes $550.00
plus postage.
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