The sticks that relate directly to this example, and almost certainly were carved by the same hand, are: two in the Johannesburg Art Gallery (one illustrated in Art and ambiguity, Johannesburg, 1991, p.78 and the other with a baby on the back of the baboon illustrated in M Stevenson and D Viljoen, Art of the Dutch & British colonies in South Africa & East Asia, August 1998, no.14); one sold by Christie's Amsterdam 24 May 2000; one in the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Berlin; and an example in the Local History Museum, Durban (Zulu treasures, Durban, 1996, W92) which is of inferior carving.

The works attributed to the so-called Baboon Master are among the most distinctive carvings produced in late nineteenth-century south-east Africa. The first reconstruction of his oeuvre was in the late 1980s (see S Klopper, '"Zulu" headrests and figurative carvings: the Brenthurst Collection and the Art of South-east Africa'. In Art and ambiguity, Johannesburg, 1991, pp.89-98), and subsequently a number of other sticks by him have been identified. It would appear that he worked in the region of Pietermaritzburg and Durban in the 1880s and 1890s, and carved sticks incorporating the form of a baboon into the handle, as well as staffs with single African male and female figures. The sticks with baboons can be divided into those that are carved in hardwood with a dark patina and the blonde wood examples. In addition, there is a further sub-group of hardwood sticks that have the baboon surmounting two African heads with headrings (as in this work). When the known baboon sticks are divided up in this manner, the question does arise as to whether they were indeed all carved by one carver, whether he had assistants or whether other carvers imitated the design of the artist who initially conceived this form.

It would appear that the Baboon Master carved these works to be sold to Europeans because there appears to have been no indigenous tradition of producing such walking sticks. At the time that he worked there was an influx of soldiers in Natal to fight initially in the Anglo-Zulu War and later in the South African War. These soldiers purchased many curios, weapons and other souvenirs from the region which would have provided a ready market for his work. For example, Colonel Henry Fanshawe Davies of the Grenadier Guards noted at the end of a letter home, April 1879: 'I bought a Zulu's walking stick at Durban'.5

5 Julius E Lips, The Savage hits back on the white man through native eyes, London, 1937, p.xxi.