Zande hair pin
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.144
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Brass Metal
Process:
?cast , Hammered , Bent , Polished
Dimensions:
L = 91.7 mm, W across head = 38.1 mm, W upper body = 8 mm, Diam lower body = 1.5 mm [RTS 28/4/2004].
Weight:
9.8 g
Local Name:
lippi
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 27th April 1933 during a shooting expedition. Found unentered on 26th April 2004 with its object tag bearing provenance details attached, and matched to a formerly missing item in the list of
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934; found unentered 2004.
Collected Date:
27th April 1933
Description:
Hair pin ornament made from a single brass rod.
The upper part of this has been hammered flat, and split down the centre to form two narrow strips with rectangular sections.
These have been bent in opposite directions to form tightly spiralling coils on either side of the body.
The upper shaft continues as a broad flattened section with hammering marks and a slight irregular ridge running down the length on either side.
The remainder of the pin is then made up of a narrow body that begins with a square section then becomes circular, ending in a sharp point.
The object is complete, but there is a split down one side and both coils are encrusted with what appears to be dirt; the surface is currently a bright metallic yellow (Pantone 871C), and has been polished.
The pin has a length of 91.7 mm, and measures 38.1 mm across the width of the spiral head, 8 mm across the flattened body, while the lower body has a diameter of 1.5 mm.
It weighs 9.8 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Yambio on 27th April 1933 during a shooting expedition.
This pin was worn by women in their hair, and has the Zande name lippi. Other Zande objects that incorporate spirals into their designs include 1884.87.25, an apron which has an iron spiral as a decorative attachment, and 1884.140.261, as an ornament or amulet.
Currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 121A.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Yambio on 27th April 1933 during a shooting expedition.
This pin was worn by women in their hair, and has the Zande name lippi. Other Zande objects that incorporate spirals into their designs include 1884.87.25, an apron which has an iron spiral as a decorative attachment, and 1884.140.261, as an ornament or amulet.
Currently on display in the Lower Gallery, case 121A.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
261] 1934.8.144 - Brass hair pin dividing into two decorative spirals at top.
Worn by women, local name
lippi
.
ZANDE, Yambio, 27/4/1933 (917).
Found unentered, accessioned 26/4/2004 [RTS].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 917: "One woman's brass hair pin, with coiled top (eye shaped), one 4 1/4", native name Lippi, 27/4/33 Yambio, 4.34 N 28.23 E" [RTS 26/4/2004; note that this entry had originally described two pins and then been annotated to make it only one]. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Lippi , woman's hair-pin. ZANDE, Yamgio, E. SUDAN. 4° 34' N., 28v 23' E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton 1934. 917 [tag still tied to object, RTS 26/4/2004].
Written on object - 917 [?D] [very faint marking, possibly pencil, on flattened body section; RTS 28/4/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 917: "One woman's brass hair pin, with coiled top (eye shaped), one 4 1/4", native name Lippi, 27/4/33 Yambio, 4.34 N 28.23 E" [RTS 26/4/2004; note that this entry had originally described two pins and then been annotated to make it only one]. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Lippi , woman's hair-pin. ZANDE, Yamgio, E. SUDAN. 4° 34' N., 28v 23' E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton 1934. 917 [tag still tied to object, RTS 26/4/2004].
Written on object - 917 [?D] [very faint marking, possibly pencil, on flattened body section; RTS 28/4/2004].
Display History:
Displayed in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A) [AP].
