This headrest, through its configuration, strongly suggests a stylized human form. Two chunky, abstracted legs stand firmly on a flat, two-lobed base. The rectangular ‘legs’ narrow towards the central ‘waist’, which takes the form of a neatly grooved rectangle. A set of two sturdy ‘arms’ that mirror the shape of the legs, hold up the generous but refined upper platform. With its two lugs at either end, the sleeping surface is notably lighter in color than the central panel. The notion of an ‘anthropomorphic caryatid,’ latent in other Shona and Tsonga examples, is most convincingly articulated in this example.

On the side of the headrest facing away from the camera, the base has been deliberately broken, an act which sometimes occurred at the death of the person to whom it belonged, done to release the spirit. According to Mr Ivy, the dealer from whom the headrest was bought, it had been collected in Mashonaland.