Neckpiece with panel (umphapheni) (1800s–1900s): Art, History and Details

Neckpiece with panel (umphapheni) (1800s–1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Consisting of a tasseled length attached to a rectangular panel joined by metal buttons, this neckpiece (umphapheni) was likely worn along with waistbands and headpieces with the same color scheme and patterns. Joined together using stitches and zig-zag patterns popular around the turn of the 20th century, glass beadwork was heavy to wear. The fringe—typical of Zulu-style Northern Nguni beadwork—added additional weight. The imported glass beads testify to centuries of trade connections between southern Africa and Europe, while the brass buttons—probably drawn from a British soldier’s uniform—allude to the Anglo-Zulu conflicts of the 1800s.

Object facts

• Title: Neckpiece with panel (umphapheni)
• Date: 1800s–1900s
• Culture: Africa, Southern African, South Africa, Southeast Cape Region, Northern Nguni (Zulu)-style maker
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: Glass beads, plant fiber, copper alloy, and iron
• Dimensions: Overall: 68.6 cm (27 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 2010.207

A detail from the museum

The seed beads that make up this neckpiece were imported to southern Africa by European traders who tailored their wares to local tastes and color preferences; beads came first from Venice and Murano, and later from Bohemia in the twentieth century.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pemberton, John, III. African Beaded Art" Power and Adornment, exh. cat. Northampton, Massachusetts: Smith College Museum of Art, 2008, cat. 101
• “Exhibitions through November 2022.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 62, no. 3 (September 2022): 13.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.