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Jun 10, 2009

Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)

1800s

Guinea Coast, Ghana, Asante, 19th century

Gold

Overall: 6.4 x 2.1 cm (2 1/2 x 13/16 in.)

Weight: 4.19 g (0.15 oz.)

Dudley P. Allen Fund 1935.309

Location

108C Akan & Yoruba

Description

Shared by different Akan and Akan-related peoples, including the Asante and Baule, gold ornaments indicate status and wealth and are worn at public festivals by titleholders, chiefs, and kings. Most pectoral disks are suspended over the chest by a white, pineapple-fiber cord. They are owned by the okra, a young official who purifies the chief’s soul--hence, the name akrafokonmu, meaning "soul-washer’s badges" or "soul disks."

Provenance

?-1896

Treasury of asantehene (King) Agyeman Prempeh I, Kumasi, Ghana ¹

?-1935

(Charles Ratton (Gallery), Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art via Pierre Matisse) ²

1935-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹Original catalogue card (CMA Curatorial File)

²Original catalogue card (CMA Curatorial File)

Citations

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935. Mentioned: p. 39, no. 162.

Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 22; reproduced: p. 23, fig. 13, p. 68, no. 18.

Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Mentioned: p. 112

Brooklyn Museum. Masterpieces of African Art. Exhibition Dates: October 21, 1954-January 2, 1955. [Brooklyn]: Brooklyn Museum, 1954. Mentioned: p. 39

Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Reproduced and mentioned: p. 202-203, fig 516

Walker, Roslyn A., Martha J. Ehrlich, Christraud M. Geary, M. D. McLeod, and Doran H. Ross. The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Dallas : Dallas Museum of Art, 2018. Reproduced: p. 95, cat. 43

Exhibition history

NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1935: "African Negro Art," cat. no. 162, (also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935).

NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art" 2/1/00 - 9/3/00, exh. cat. no. 18, p. 68.

Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).

The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (April 15-August 12, 2018).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.309|year=1800s|access-date=26 October 2021|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)

Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)

Guinea Coast, Ghana, Asante, 19th century

Location

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Description

Provenance Footnotes

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