YORUBA STYLE BEADED STAFFS ARCHIVES, Nigeria

The beaded staffs below have been sold and are left here for educational and research purposes.

Photographs © Hamill Gallery

Beads were signs of wealth and status. Many Yoruba sacred and secular objects were embellished with elaborate images and symbolic designs created by small glass beads.

"Beaded staffs can serve as a surrogate for the ruler in his/her absence. Only the staff gives a ruler's messenger authority to speak....The veils suspended below the rectangular platforms suggest a beaded veil of a royal crown.... The iron point at the base of the staff serves both practical and symbolic purposes. The staff, like the oba, can be planted or rooted firmly in place, standing firmly vertical to assert power, authority and action. ...While the horse and rider are rendered quite realistically, their proportions relative to each other follow Yoruba canons of conceptual scale where bigness equals importance."

Beads Body and Soul, by Drewal and Mason, pp. 212 and 227