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This, the first book devoted to beadwork from the eastern regions of southern Africa, illustrates in full colour 260 pieces of beadwork dating from 1850 to 1910. It firmly places beadwork as an art form to be displayed in art galleries and researched by art historians rather than as an artefact of interest only to ethnographers.

Based on the collection of art dealers Michael Stevenson and Michael Graham-Stewart, it demonstrates the breadth and astonishing artistry of women beadworkers from the subcontinent.

Together Stevenson and Graham-Stewart have acquired pieces that were collected and taken back to Europe by colonial officials, travellers, missionaries and soldiers.

The main focus of the collection is beadwork made by Zulu-speaking women in the Zulu kingdom and the Colony of Natal. There are also pieces produced by Xhosa-speaking women from the Eastern cape and by Sotho women in the Drakensberg, as well as work from further north, traditionally ascribed to the Yao people of the eastern Zambian region.

It was through the growing availability of beads in the nineteenth century that women throughout southern Africa were afforded the opportunity to develop their creative skills, leading to a flowering of beadwork production throughout the region in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Foreword by Michael Stevenson and Michael Graham-Stewart

The collection depicted in the book had its modest origin more than a decade ago, when we bought various pieces of south-east African beadwork with appealing designs. As we set about researching each particular piece, we were always astonished at how little is known about beadwork from this area. The focus of African art collecting has been on 'traditional' figurative pieces, and more recently interest has expanded to material culture, textiles and costume. But pieces, such as beadwork, which are not made entirely from indigenous material, and are on occasions made expressly for sale, fall outside these categories and thus remain neglected. It is for this reason that we decided to publish our collection, which should go some way towards sensitising art historians, collectors and curators to the extraordinary breadth of the field, and the complexity and nuances in the designs of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century beadwork from the south-east Africa region. The many comparisons that can be made between pieces in this catalogue and those in other collections should, with time, assist researchers in refining the classification of beadwork from this particular area and period, and ensure that it is better understood.

Unfortunately this is not a comprehensive survey of all south-east African beadwork, because collectors in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries focused on North Nguni beadwork, from the Colony of Natal and the Zulu kingdom. This bias is reflected in this book, although we have sought out pieces from the South Nguni, Sotho, and Yao, amongst other groups of people who also produced beadwork at this time in south-east Africa. But there are still pieces illustrated in paintings by nineteenth-century South African artists, such as Frederick Timpson I'Ons and Thomas Baines, which we have never seen in reality, and this poses the question whether any of these pieces were collected at the time and if so, whether they will appear on the market at some time in the future. It should also be borne in mind that our selection has been primarily guided by the age, aesthetic appeal and condition of each piece, rather than by any ethnographic or anthropological considerations.

The hardcover book retails for R295 inclusive of VAT. To order email info@michaelstevenson.com.