Title(s)

‘Captain’ Coba (or Kobé), a chief of the Gqunukhwebe tribe, wearing the grenadiers helmet given him by Robert Jacob Gordon

Object type

• drawing

Object number

RP-T-1914-17-75

Inscriptions / marks

• annotation, within image and lower margin, handwritten in brown ink: ‘Ik had hem die muts vereert / Dese Caffers hieten Sig Selven Cosaas, of Amma Cosa / Coba Caffer Captein, Ses voet lang / en git Swart, met sijn Schild; en Assagaijen’ (I had honoured him with the cap / These Caffres call themselves Xhosas, or AmaXhosa / The Caffre Captain Coba, six foot high and pitch black with his shield and assegais), hand of resp. Gordon; Sch; Gordon en Sch

Description

Stamhoofd Coba (Kobe) met de grenadiersmuts die hem door Gordon op 5 december 1777 werd geschonken, zijn schild en assegaaien.

Artist

• draftsman (artist): Robert Jacob Gordon

Place

Great Fish River (South Africa)

Dating

11-Dec-1777

Material

• paper
• deck paint
• ink
• pencil
• chalk

Technique

brush / pen

Measurements

height 660 mm × width 480 mm
height 376 mm × width 241 mm
height 350 mm × width 227 mm

Credit line

• Purchased with the support of private collectors

Acquisition

purchase 1914

Copyright

Public domain

Is part of

• The Gordon African Collection : Men, reptiles, fishes (RP-T-1914-17A)

Related

• AC-00079800object | reproductionobject | reproductieRP-F-956-4RM0001.COLLECT.1500079799
• AC-00079802object | reproductionobject | reproductieRP7072 13X18 (MET NR. 74)RM0001.COLLECT.1500079801

• South Africa in 1777-95, suppl., p. 5
• Een Nederlander in de wildernis, Luc Panhuysen (Lucas Henricus Maria) , 1962-, afb. 13
• Goede Hoop, p. 176, afb. 10.16
• Een beeld van een land: Zuid-Afrika gezien door R.J. Gordon, tussen 1773 en 1795, Meile Dirk Haga
• Robert Jacob Gordon 1743-1795: the man and his travels at the Cape, Patrick Cullinan, p. 42, pl. 18 (kleurafb.)
• Robert Jacob Gordon, Peter Edmund Raper, vol. 1, p. 185, pl. 35 (kleurafb.)
• De Gordon Atlas, Leendert Cornelis Rookmaaker, p. 125, afb. 2 (zw/w)
• Robert Gordon verkent de Kaap, Jan Frederik 1949- Heijbroek
• J. Peires, 'The other side of the black silk handkerchief : the Van Plettenberg agreement of 1778', Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa 62, nr. 1 (2008), p. 9 e.v. met afb.
• Afb. op www.uct.ac.za/depts/age/people/Gordon, als: Chief Coba or Kobe, wearing a grenadier’s cap, a gift from Gordon.