Details
ITEM DESCRIPTION:
Toposa Pipe
ITEM #:
2589
ETHNICITY:
Toposa
ORIGIN:
Southern Sudan
MEDIUM:
Brass, Bone.
DIMENSIONS:
8″ (20.3 cm).
PROVENANCE:
Private Collection – Florida, USA.
CATALOGUE NOTE:
Tobacco was introduced to the African tribes by European travelers and soon became a regularly used item among the African people, whether in smoking pipes or as snuff which was sniffed for medicinal use. This in turn led to items such as smoking pipes and snuff boxes being created for patrons in the use of tobacco, and these items were often treasured as prestige items, thus showing status within the tribe the more elaborate they were.
The Toposa people who lived in southern Sudan created items like this brass and bone Toposa smoking pipe for the smoking of tobacco.
