Decorative Bowls

A Lozi bowl from Zambia, its handle carved into the form of a reclining man

The Lozi people of Zambia are best known for their basketry, so it's their wooden bowls — made far less often — that collectors really seek out. We've had three in: a duck, a rabbit and a lying man.

A wood bowl from a basketry people

Basketry is the Lozi craft most people know, woven from grasses and reeds along the Zambezi floodplain. Wooden bowls are a smaller, less common tradition by comparison, which is exactly what makes them sought-after objects among collectors rather than an everyday curio. Each one starts as a single piece of wood, carved by hand — there's no mould or repeated template, so the form, grain and finish are particular to that one bowl.

The handle is where each bowl gets its character. Our duck-handled piece (21.92) stands taller than most at 20cm high on a 32cm × 18cm base — animals drawn from the rivers and floodplains the Lozi have always lived alongside, carved into the wood rather than added on.

Animal and human form, side by side

Not every Lozi handle is an animal. Our rabbit-handled bowl (66.2) sits at 36cm × 16cm × 20cm, the long ears running along the rim, while our lying man bowl (66.3) takes a human figure as its motif instead — a man carved reclining along the handle, a characteristic Lozi form. At 21cm × 19cm × 19cm it's the smallest and most compact of the three, with the kind of natural marks and patina that only come from genuine age. These bowls were originally used for storing and serving food, and that everyday function still shows in the proportions, even though we'd treat ours today as sculptural objects first.

Each Lozi bowl we carry is a one-off — once it's gone, that particular piece doesn't come back.

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