Zaramo Stool/Side Table

A thick round seat on a single post, with nail heads marching around it like a parade.

This stool or side table is Zaramo, from Tanzania, East Africa, and dates to the 20th C. It is wood, tin and nickel. Stools in East Africa were often carved from a single block of wood and could signal the status of their owner, with metal ornament adding prestige. The thick circular top is edged with nail heads and set with strips of tin in a radiating pattern. A sturdy cylindrical column, its surface roughly faceted and studded in diagonal lines, rises from a broad round base, itself divided into sections by rows of studs. It is 14.5 inches wide, 14 deep and 18 high.

Solid enough to outlast several generations of sitters.