Figural headrest "musamo"

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Description

wood,

The present headrest is a work of the master carver Kiloko of Bussangu.A very similar work by the artist illustrated in Dewey 1993, p. 68, fig. 63 (AHDRC 0031714).

Headrests were certainly used by their sleeping owners to help preserve the elaborate coiffures the Luba are noted for. A style such as the Shankadi cascade was styled over a canework frame, it took almost fifty hours to complete, and with the use of a headrest at night, it could last two to three months.

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Comparing literature

Dewey, William J., Sleeping Beauties, Los Angeles 1993, p. 68, ill. 63

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