Cameroonian Stool / Side Table

Black from rim to rim, with a pattern that refuses to stay still.

Carved in Cameroon, Central Africa, in the 20th century, this stool or side table is a single dark drum of wood in appearance, opened up with a knife. Openwork seats of this kind were associated in Cameroon with people of standing, and the patterning gave a sitter's status something to say. Twin bands of angular zigzag zip around the waist, framed by rounded hoops and short columns above and below. A thick round rail forms the top. Eighteen and a half inches high and nearly eighteen across.

It works as a table too. The zigzags will not mind a drink.