"Snuff ring" with anthropomorphic head ·  Nigeria, Tiv · ID: 3048219

Description

cast in brass in the “lost-wax” method, base

Neyt noted in his standard work “The Arts of the Benue” (1985) that these snuff rings were once very commonly used and that they served to facilitate the snuffing of tobacco.

They always show the same shape with a disc-shaped platter for the snuff. They are richly decorated with concentric grooved patterns and other decoration, sometimes also with anthropomorphic motifs, as in the present object.

Comparing literature

Neyt, Francois, The Arts of the Benue, Michigan 1985, p. 200, IV.45