This spoon illustrates the virtuoso carving of the Tsonga: the open-work barley-twist handle is complex and precise. The fragility of this shaft would have disallowed the spoon serving as a utilitarian object and, consequently, such spoons were probably made for sale to early travellers and collectors or for a ceremonial purpose.

The headring on the head within the circular handle can lead to misidentification as 'Zulu', but the ruling elite of the Tsonga, particularly those who moved into the Transvaal after the defeat of Gungunyane by the Portuguese, claimed Zulu origin and retained certain 'Zulu' elements of dress and regimental organisation.

This example is particularly noteworthy because its design combines two aspects of such spoons: an openwork shaft and the head within the handle - they are usually have one attribute or the other. (For openwork shafts, see The art of South-east Africa, Milan, 2002, no 61; Art and ambiguity, Johannesburg, 1992, no 548; Ubuntu, Paris, 2002, no 66; and for head finials, see The art of South-east Africa, Milan, 2002, no 62; and Art and ambiguity, Johannesburg, 1992, no 547, plate 10).

William Lucas Distant in A naturalist in the Transvaal, London, 1892, p102, illustrates a similar example with the caption 'Magwamba ladle' (the Sotho name for Tsonga-speakers in the Transvaal) and provides the plate with the title 'Arts and industries in the Spelonken' (referring to a mission station established in 1875 in the present-day Limpopo province). Further related examples are also illustrated in Ernest Winizki, African spoons, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1990, nos 106-9.