Jewelry boxes are what our collectors buy more than anything else, and they are also what arrives in the largest numbers. Every shipment from KwaZulu-Natal brings dozens of them from Love Art Ceramic and from Senzo Duma's studio, and every one goes through the same test before it reaches the gallery floor: lid off, turned in the hand, seen from every side.
Ed Pascoe has been choosing pieces since 1969. When he walked through the boxes with us, he kept coming back to the same few questions.
Is it pretty from every side?
"Is it pleasing to the eye, first of all? Whichever side you look at it from, it should be beautiful." A box lives on a dressing table or a desk, which means it is seen from the side and from behind as often as from the front. The wild dog on this one stands square on its lid from every angle, the way Teboho Ndlovu sculpted it, and Samkelo Gumede painted the coat patch by patch.
Do the colors pull against each other and still belong?
"Contrasting and complementary" is how Ed puts it. On the parrot, also by Teboho Ndlovu and Samkelo Gumede, blue feathers sit over a band of green leaves. On the frog and protea box, Swelihle Khanyeza ran coral into violet at the tip of every bract.
Can you find the lid?
"You can't see where the lid joins the base. It shows skill, creativity." On the protea boxes from Love Art, the lid is the top of the flower. Lift the weaver bird on the lilac protea and a crown of bracts comes away with it. Nathi Msomi sculpted that one and Jabu Nene dotted every bract.
Parrot Jewelry Box
By Teboho Ndlovu and Samkelo Gumede
$425
Chameleon Flower Jewelry Box
By Sibusiso Ndaba and Minenhle Nene
$495
Protea, Bird Jewelry Box
By Nathi Msomi and Jabu Nene
$495
Wild Dog Jewelry Box
By Teboho Ndlovu and Samkelo Gumede
$425
Most of what arrives is good. The ones that pass all three questions are the ones we would keep for ourselves, and each of them is the only one there is.