A strong Zulu headrest of classic, rectilinear design. Six legs support the rest, deployed in three close pairs that appear as blocks or panels when viewed frontally. The particular arrangement of elements in this rest's composition, with its strong parallel legs and stout horizontal element, suggest a zoomorphic character. The outward surfaces of the legs are fully covered by incised striations both horizontal and vertical, and these striations are echoed on the terminals of the rest.
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As valuable utilitarian items and conduits through which men might confer with ancestral spirits in dreams, headrests were one of the most fundamental and ubiquitous works of South African carving, sometimes passed down through several generations.