File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973404939).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo07amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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SOUTH-CENTRAL AFRICAN COLLECTION 71) surface of the vessel is burned with a hut iron and afterwards smeared with hot bee's wax, which is thoroughly rubbed into the wood, giving the surface a dead black finish. Perhaps the finest type of wooden vessel is the oval flat tureen with a hd. On the top of the lid is usually a carved elephant, hippopotamus or other large cjuadruped. Pottery is of several forms, varying from large handsome jars to small drinking cups with handles. The most common type, however, is the water bottle. Two kinds of clay are used, which are mixed in certain proportions and modeled by a combination of the coil and beating processes. In the begin- ning, the bottom of the pot is fashioned in a shallow basket- work tray, which is turned with the left hand somewhat after the fashion of a potter's wheel. All of the pottery in the collec- tion is red, but decorated with triangular designs in black or dark red. These designs are quite simple and consist usually of single or double rows of ecjui- lateral triangles. The same sort of decoration is applied to wood- en ware, the triangles being pro- duced by scraping away the previously blackened surface of the wood. The people from whom these collections came also manufactin-e l)lack pottery of excellent ((uality, but this art is fast ilisappearing and no specimens could be obtained. Wood carving is rather highly developed, the best types of which are to be seen in stools and sticks. While the common people usually sit upon the ground or upon mats, chiefs and other prominent people sit upon low wooden stools. These stools are usually cut from a single block of wood. One very common type is that in which the base and the top of the stool are joined by a human figure, supported behind by two or three upright posts. These figures always have the attitude of
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A CARVED WOODEN STOOL About 14 inches high

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