Individually commissioned goblets were used on social occasions to demonstrate both the virtuosity and innovation of the artist and sophistication of the owner. In each of these cups, the artist has reduced the figure or form to its essentials. This economical and witty approach to the subject matter provides a dramatic foil to the tactile patterns on each cup. The designs that appear before the ears of the figurative cups may refer to the scarification marks Kuba men and women acquire both to ease recurrent headaches and to mark their identity. Whether applied to the face, coiffure, rim, or base, the patterns that appear on these vessels are found throughout the extensive Kuba visual vocabulary.