This snuff staff, with its legged shaft, has a finial consisting of multiple circular and semi-circular shapes brought together in a skillful visual play to form a ‘moon-shaped’ face with ‘horns’ above and beard below. Its stopper is a small ‘hat’ that completes the rotund visage. Both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, it has a quizzical expression and intriguing form.

The British Museum has two similar staffs in its collection with hollow finials for snuff storage. Both are provenanced to Pietermaritzburg, in what was then the Colony of Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal and their collection date is documented to before 1878.

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