Snuff Mortar (Tesa Ya Ma Kanya) (late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Snuff Mortar (Tesa Ya Ma Kanya) (late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Tobacco, introduced into Africa in the 16th century, became the prerogative of leaders. As patrons of the arts, Chokwe chiefs commissioned elaborate pipes and mortars as part of their court regalia for display during public gatherings.

Object facts

• Title: Snuff Mortar (Tesa Ya Ma Kanya)
• Date: late 1800s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Angola or Democratic Republic of Congo, Chokwe carver
• Type: Tools and Equipment
• Technique: Wood, upholstery studs, cloth, and metal
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.5 x 8.4 x 13.8 cm (8 7/8 x 3 5/16 x 5 7/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1978.28

A detail from the museum

The metal furniture tacks around the tobacco container were signs of its owner's wealth and access to imported goods.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fagg, William, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 1968. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 242.
• Jordán, Manuel, Marie Louise Bastin, Birmingham Museum of Art (Birmingham, Ala), Baltimore Museum of Art, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. 1998. Chokwe! : Art and Initiation among the Chokwe and Related Peoples. Munich: Prestel.

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.