Oil lamp
date: label: Date
content: Mid-19th century
name: label: Maker
content: Kabyle artist
notes: label: Label Text
content: The inhabitants of the mountainous Kabyle region along the Mediterranean coast in northeastern Algeria are farmers primarily. They are also superb artists noted for their jewelry, textiles, mats, basketry, pottery and house murals.
label: Label Text
content: In North Africa, wheel-thrown pottery, which is made by men, dates from the 7th century B.C. when the Phoenicians introduced the potter's wheel to the Algerian coast. Handbuilt pottery, which is made by women, is an older, probably indigenous tradition that dates back 2000 years before the birth of Christ.
label: Label Text
content: To this day, Kabyle women coil and decorate pottery with beautiful, geometric designs for their own household use and for sale. Kabyle women handbuild vessels of various sizes and shapes for holding water, milk and oil, for cooking and eating food and for making oil lamps. The designs they select to adorn these household items resemble those used in their henna patterns and weavings. The intimate scale of this lamp suggests that it was used for an indoor activity, perhaps a light for reading or writing.
label: Description
content: Oil lamp with a flared base topped by a circluar platform which supports two arches supporting two circluar, smoke colored holders. In between them is a round shaped structure with a red colored cone shaped top. At the bottom of each holder and structure are perforations. At the back, a handle projects outward from the cone topped structure and ends just below the circular platform. The lamp itself has a yellow colored body covered with red and black geometric motifs in the shape of triangles and rectangles, some of which are filled in with crisscross lines and checkerboard patterns.
label: Provenance
content: M. Jansen, Brussels, -- to ca. 1976
label: Provenance
content: Colette Ghysels, Brussels, ca.1976 to 2000
label: Exhibition History
content: African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (deinstalled July 9, 2019)
label: Exhibition History
content: African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013
label: Content Statement
content: As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
label: Image Requests
content: High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
place: label: Geography
content: Kabylie, Algeria
topic: label: Topic
content: geometric motif
label: Topic
content: male
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African Art Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchased with funds provided by the Annie Laurie Aitken Endowment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2000-16-1
objectType: label: Type
content: Sculpture
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Ceramic
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 38.4 x 26 x 20.4 cm (15 1/8 x 10 1/4 x 8 1/16 in.)