The Rhodesian Soapstone Carvings

On our 1970 visit with my parents to Victoria Falls - see earlier post here - we stopped to buy soapstone carvings from some men in a small open-air market. Soapstone is an unusually soft metamorphic rock, a schist formed largely of the mineral talc. It's easy to carve and as easy to scratch, so it's a great material for carving but not so good for keeping.

Having always had a soft spot for chameleons I couldn't resist this one. He's less than 5cm high and is out-of-proportion and crudely carved, though he does show a chameleon's main features, like his two-toed feet.

The other carving is of a man's head. It's a little larger and we bought him because, although he's poorly finished, whoever carved him has captured a man deep in thought, perhaps a wise man and, perhaps, quite old.

Like all our mementos, they've bumped their way around the world with us and survived various purges when we've moved house and felt we had to get rid of at least some of our clutter. We don't have much else still with us from our three happy years in Rhodesia, so the man and the chameleon are rather treasured.