Tobacco was introduced to Africa by the Portuguese and probably reached the Chokwe via the Kongo-Kwilu peoples or the Benguela trade route in the 17th century. In the beginning tobacco was smoked in pipes; by the 18th century it was ground into snuff. Because of the expense, snuff became the prerogative of chiefs, who offered it to visitors and used it to invoke the ancestors at public audiences.
Joachim John Monteiro, a 19th-century visitor to Angola, saw Chokwe snuff mortars "carved out of wood and variously ornamented." The body of these snuff mortars are made of ivory, a prestige material.
Description:
Cylindrical ivory container with a pierced lug on the side for a leather thong attached to a stopper made of mother-of-pearl button. Three rows of circle-dot motifs decorate the lug.
Provenance:
Dr. Werner Muensterberger, New York, ca. 1950-1980 to 1989
Exhibition History:
Treasures 2008, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 9-August 24, 2008
Art of the Personal Object, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 24, 1991-April 9, 2007
Published References:
Patton, Sharon F. and Bryna Freyer. 2008. Treasures 2008. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 94-95.
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