Leadership staff

19th-20th century

A most beautiful thing

In a sales catalogue, this tall staff was described as "an elegant version of a golf club or musical note" from the Makonde People of Tanzania, circa 1850. After seeing it on display in Maine, the Director of the National Gallery of Art, J. Carter Brown, wrote to say, "That Chieftain's Staff is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen!" It is actually used by Makonde diviners-who carry it with them as they walk-to draw sacred patterns in the sand, as part of the divining process.

Wood

56 x 3 in. (142.2 x 7.6 cm)

General Acquisition Fund

99.62

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, November 14, 2003 - November 14, 2004

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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