White short cow horn vase - Uganda
Ankole cattle, native to Uganda, is raised primarily for its meat and milk, like most other cattle, but the resourceful people of this small African country have learned to make a wide variety of useful household and artistic objects from these very large horns. Of course the exceptional size of the horns lends themselves to the manufacture of many objects of which smaller horns would be less useful. These vases, reminiscent of ivory tusks, are especially appealing to tourists in Africa since ivory is prohibited to be used. These objects, certainly useful as vases for dried flowers, are not guaranteed to hold water. You may be able to seal the seam at the bottom but our seal is not guaranteed. They are, even without holding flowers of any kind, a sculptural object with great visual appeal. Horns of this type occur naturally in a range of colors: this type is what we call "white".
A photo of the cattle whose horns they use is attached as well as a photo of some of the largest of the horns that have been used, presented by a horn artisan in Uganda.
This vase measures 12 1/2" tall (32 cm). Its base measures 4 3/4 x 4 1/4" (12 x 11 cm), not quite round.