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Container for Cosmetic Powder

At the time when this object was dispatched to Stuttgart, in many regions of Namibia similar cosmetic boxes were considered highly valued personal possessions for women, and would often be passed down through the generations along female lines of succession, in some cases to this day. Made from the shell of a small turtle, they contained cosmetic and perfumed body powder and were often worn attached to a waist belt. Text: Sandra Ferracuti.

Data Provider
Linden-Museum Stuttgart Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde
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Cataloguing data

Cultural attribution
Bergdama
Object type
Dose
Dimensions
Breite: 10 cm, Länge: 50 cm
Material/Technique
Turtle shell, Leather
pierced, knotted
Current location
Linden-Museum Stuttgart
Inventory number
028215

Provenance and sources

when
around 1900 or earlier

where
Namibia

when
1903
Provenance
Dr. Anton Lübbert initially sent the collection to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin on the basis of the so-called Bundesrat resolution of 1889. Before it was forwarded to Stuttgart, Felix von Luschan selected and sorted the material there. In German South-West Africa, Lübbert had objects procured through "his collectors". Only a few months after the outbreak of the Herero-German War, in September 1904, Lübbert wrote to Linden that "it is already almost completely impossible to get Herero items". He had therefore "had the last stocks, which were in the hands of farmers and traders, bought up". Text: Christoph Rippe.

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