37 - Prestigious walking stick with a European head

Prestigious walking stick with a European head Wood, original brown and reddish patina, signs of wear. Tsonga, South Africa. Estimated date: late 19th century. H: 83 cm This cane is topped with the head of a European man with pronounced sideburns, wearing a bowler hat. The large eyes and prominent nose give the face a confident expression. A snake carved in relief winds around the shaft, adding rhythm to the vertical lines of the piece. Beginning in the 1850s, Tsonga carvers from Mozambique settled in Natal, where they worked primarily for a European clientele. These figurative walking sticks bear witness to these encounters: portraits of Europeans and their sartorial attributes became part of the repertoire of prestige objects. Here, the bowler hat and sideburns might suggest a British figure. Provenance: Alain Guisson Collection (1951–2019), Brussels, then passed down through the family. Sotheby’s auction, Paris, Art from Africa, Oceania, Indonesia, and the Americas, November 28, 2023, lot 88. General Bibliography: *Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art*, Johannesburg, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1991. Documentary references: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, entry for the Tsonga staff, inv. 91-14-2. University of Michigan Museum of Art, entry for the staff with a European figure, inv. 2001/2.60.