The tradition of wearing breast covers, or incebeth, by South Nguni married women evolved in the nineteenth century, possibly in response to the gradual colonization of the Eastern Cape by the British. These breast covers take many forms. In I'Ons' watercolours of Xhosa people in the 1840s, the covers are two elongated leather attachments joined to a band of beadwork. In photographs from the 1860s they comprise a fringe of long (usually white and black) bead strings attached to a leather or cotton cloth. However, illustrations of people wearing examples such as these two are not known (see E. M. Shaw and N. J. van Warmelo, 'The material culture of the Cape Nguni', Annals of the SA Museum, 58(4), 1998, pp.542-4).

The piece with a diamond-shape design is most probably of Mfengu origin with the distinctive large beads in white, red, and dark and light blue that is characteristic of their beadwork. The example, with zig-zags of black, blue, white, red, pink and green beads, is probably from an area in present-day Transkei and southern Lesotho, a region that is closely associated with this combination of colours.