Ivorian Grain Storage Container

A gourd is what you get when a plant decides to be a container. The people of West Africa took the hint.

This grain storage container was made from a large gourd in Ivory Coast in the 20th century. Dried gourds have long been among the most useful vessels in West African households, cut and fitted to hold grain, seed and other dry goods. It is almost spherical, seventeen inches tall, with the upper section serving as a lid. A broad band of pale, bark-like material encircles the join, stitched along both edges with fine fiber, and a zigzag line of stitching below marks an old repair. The gourd has deepened to a rich reddish orange.

It warms a shelf or console.