Beads and Beadwork of East and South Africa

(Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1986) 0852637977. 210 x 150 mm; pictorial wrappers; pp. 64, incl. index; map; several monochrome illustrations. Very slightly sunned and rubbed. Very good condition. "Beads have been used as currency and adornment since the earliest times. As Africa developed trade contacts, beads were imported from India and the east from as early as the first century AD and glass beads have been found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Later, European traders brought beads by the shipload to buy gold, ivory and slaves. Such trade beads were made in Venice, Bohemia and Amsterdam. As beads became commoner they were used to make bead ornaments in increasing quantity and variety. The many types of beads and beadwork that occur in Africa, from the Sudan and the Horn of Africa through East Africa to South Africa and Namibia, are differentiated and described within their cultural setting in this book. Beadwork ornaments may be used as status symbols for royalty and important men or as part of the dress suitable for a young bride or a married woman. Zulu girls make bead ornaments (the 'Zulu love letters') for their young men; the messages are subtly conveyed by combinations of colours. Childless women decorate dolls with beads, hoping to get a real baby. Even everyday things - stools, gourds, snuff boxes, smoking pipes and musical instruments - are embellished with beads." .