Wedding Ensemble for a Bride (Umtshakazi)

Arts of Africa

1950s

Thembu
Eastern Cape, South Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa

For the Thembu and other Xhosa-speaking peoples, the beauty, translucence, and weight of layers of beaded ornaments have spiritual dimensions. Shiny, reflective materials are associated with enlightenment, purity, and access to the ancestral realm. Thembu beadworking flourished among young women in the 1940s and 1950s, but declined in the 1960s. Each of the items in this wedding ensemble was lovingly made. Many are notable for their creative reuse of materials: for example, the bracelet from which a handkerchief is suspended; the armlets made of twisted brass wire; and the beaded teaspoon necklaces, which were intended to make the marriage sweet.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Thembu
Title: Wedding Ensemble for a Bride (Umtshakazi)
Place: South Africa (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1950–1959
Medium: Cotton cloth, glass beads, mother of pearl beads, thread, and leather
Dimensions: H.: 114 cm (44 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Woman's Board of the Art Institute of Chicago; partial gift of Axis Gallery (Gary Van Wyk and Lisa Brittan)
Reference Number: 1998.518

Joan A. Broster, Red Blanket Valley (Johannesburg, South Africa: Hugh Keartland Publishers, 1967), pp. 177-78 (described).
Joan A. Broster, The Thembu, Their Beadwork, Songs, and Dances (Cape Town, South Africa: Purnell and Sons, 1976), ch. 3 instert, nos. 3-7, groom’s leg ornaments ill.; ch. 5 insert, no. 9, groom’s hat pin ill., nos. 20, 25, 30, 31, bride’s back skirt decoration, necklace, choker, and bracelet ill.).

Transkei, South Africa. Exhibited for the Chief Minister and Cabinet of the Transkei, 1966.
East London, South Africa. East London Museum, July 1984-March 1985.
King William’s Town, South Africa. Kaffrarian Museum, Oct. 1, 1985-March 26, 1986.

Collected by Joan (Broster) Cremer (née Clarke) (1916-2009), in the Transkei, South Africa, between 1952 and 1966 [note in curatorial file]; sold to Lionel Finneran and Marion Philips Finneran, South Africa, 1986; consigned to Alan Brandt, New York, N.Y., from 1986-87 to 1989 [see correspondence in curatorial file]; consigned to Gary van Wyk and Lisa Brittan, Axis Gallery, New York, N.Y., in 1997; sold to the Art Institute, 1998.

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