IDNO

P.57258.RDG

Description

Head and shoulders frontal portrait of an African man with a distinctive hairstyle of a high top piece, a cloth band, below which are six clumps of felted hair. The main wears a neck ornament of clay? pipes? worn on a strand.

Physical Condition: Photograph printed through a vignette mask. [JD 19/6/2007]

Place

S Africa; South Africa; KwaZulu-Natal [Natal]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Bourquin, S.; The London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company [Printer]

Collector / Expedition

Ridgeway, William

Date

circa 1873

Collection Name

Ridgeway Collection

Source

Format

Carte-de-visite; Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.57192.RDG to P.57260.RDG were found in C274/1/ which came from C274/. The latter was kept in Wooden Drawer VI.

Publication: A similar image of the same man is published in “Zulu Dandies:”
The History and Significance of Extravagant Hairstyling Among Young Men from Colonial Natal', by Sandra Klopper, circa 2011, and captioned "Fig. 8. Photograph from the collection of S. Bourquin, c. 1875." [Information provided by Nessa Leibhammer, Curator of Traditional Southern African Collections, Johannesburg Art Gallery, JD 12/14/2012]

Place: The Place field was previously recorded as being “C Africa”, but based on the above article, the man is probably from Natal, South Africa. The Place field has been amended accordingly. [Information provided by Nessa Leibhammer, Curator of Traditional Southern African Collections, Johannesburg Art Gallery, JD 12/14/2012]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [JD 2/7/2007]