Borana and Gabra
Container for Milk (Gorfa)
Borana or Gabra, 1933
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Plant fiber, resin, leather, cowrie shells, animal hair, cotton, 30 H (w/o tail; 74 H w tail) x 25 W x 20 D cm.
Credit Line
Gift of Carolyn Barnes, Alexandria, Virginia, in Memory of Murvil and Katherine Barnes
Object Number
1998.587a-b
Gourd vessel with lid; the entire surface braided with brown fiber with designs in black giraffe hair, the whole smoothed with resin; leather holding straps decorated with cowrie shells; one long strap left to hang down under vessel, and one narrow strap fitted over top to hold lid in place; one row of cowrie shells around shoulders of vessel.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1998; collected by donor in northern Kenya between 1970-1974 while on assignment for USAID.
Nichole Bridges, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Hand Held: Personal Arts from Africa," Sept. 25, 2011-Feb. 5, 2012.
Frederick John Lamp, "See the Music Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art." New York: Prestel, 2003, p.251, ill.
