Ethiopian Cylindrical Milk Jug with String Tied Leather Top

A stout brown vessel, a cord tied across its shoulder like a sash.

This cylindrical milk jug with a string-tied leather top is from Ethiopia, East Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is wood, hemp & leather. Across Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, pastoral and farming households have long used carved wooden vessels for storing and carrying milk and other liquids. A cylinder with a short, slightly raised lid, bound by a braided strap that runs over the top and down the side. The upper section is pale and smooth, while the lower is wrapped in a dark, worn, stitched covering with a frayed upper edge. It is 10 inches high and 6 in diameter.

Neat on top, a little tousled below.