"Although those types of jugs were sometimes used as jar for pouring palm wine or banana beer, they did not normally have a practical function. Instead, they were used by local leaders as status symbols.

"Production of artefacts in those styles, which was prevalent in the cosmolitan centres in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was given a boost around the turn of the 19th century, when it also found favour among Europeans."

Jan-Lodewijk Grootaers

Extract from: Forms of Wonderment

© 2002 Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal

Mangbetu jug #01 • Uele, Upper Zaire, DRC • Gift of H. M. King Leopold III; registered in 1959 • Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren • Inv. # RG 59.21.13 • H. 25 cm • Reproduced in Treasures from the Africa-Museum, Tervuren (Royal Museum for Central Africa, 1995), p. 256

Mangbetu jug #01 • ... same view with a frontal clipping plane

Mangbetu jug #02 • Private collection • H. 30,5 cm • Reproduced in Réceptacles edited by Joseph Aurélien Cornet (Musée Dapper, 1997), p. 91

Mangbetu jug #02 • ... same view with a frontal clipping plane

Mangbetu jug #03 • Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva • Access # 1026-179 • H. 28 cm • Reproduced in African Terra Cottas, A Millenary Heritage edited by Floriane Morin & Boris Wastiau (Musée Barbier-Mueller & Somogy Editions d’Art, 2008), p. 313

Mangbetu jug #03 • ... same view with a frontal clipping plane

Mangbetu jug #04 • Private collection • H. 26,5 cm • Reproduced in Réceptacles edited by Joseph Aurélien Cornet (Musée Dapper, 1997), p. 90

Mangbetu jug #04 • ... same view with a frontal clipping plane

Mangbetu jug #05 • Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva • Access # 1026-178 • H. 26 cm • Reproduced in African Terra Cottas, A Millenary Heritage edited by Floriane Morin & Boris Wastiau (Musée Barbier-Mueller & Somogy Editions d’Art, 2008), p. 328

Mangbetu jug #05 • ... same view with a frontal clipping plane