Zaramo Three Legged Stool/Side Table

Studded with nails and banded with tin, it looks like it is wearing armor.

This three legged stool or side table is Zaramo, from Tanzania, East Africa, dating to the 20th C. It is wood and tin. Among many East African peoples, stools carved from a single piece of wood were personal possessions, and decorating them with metal was a common way to add status. The round seat is ringed with metal tacks and inlaid with strips of tin forming arcs and a central spike, with clusters of tacks between. A broad tin patch clamps across the edge. Three curved legs splay outward, the front one studded down its length. It is 15.5 inches wide, 15 deep and 16.5 high.

Built for sitting, but dressed for a parade.