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Additional Views

May 25, 2023

Aug 11, 2011

Sep 18, 2006

Aug 11, 2011

May 25, 2023

Sep 18, 2006

Aug 11, 2011

May 25, 2023

Sep 18, 2006

Aug 11, 2011

May 25, 2023

Aug 11, 2011

May 25, 2023

Aug 11, 2011

May 25, 2023

Prestige stool (Kuo fo)

possibly 1800s

Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Bandjoun Kingdom, Bamileke makers

Wood, cotton, plant fiber, glass beads, and indigo

Overall: 51 x 38 x 43 cm (20 1/16 x 14 15/16 x 16 15/16 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2006.138

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The beads on this stool were sewn on by hand. Look underneath the stool, however, and you can see commercially made printed fabric.

Description

Bead-covered wooden stools and thrones are one of the most prevalent art forms among the various kingdoms and chiefdoms in the Cameroon Grassfields region. This example, once part of the royal treasury, belongs in the category of "travel stools," usually used in conjunction with more private, minor ceremonies and rituals at the palace. The leopard imagery confirms the object’s royal status. It alludes to the belief that the king could temporarily transform himself into this feared predator.

Video

Provenance

19th century

Possibly Fo (King) Fotso I and Fo Fotso II, Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon ¹

by at least 1925-

Fo Kamga II Joseph (1902-1975; r. 1925-1975), Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon possibly by descent from the above

1925

possibly Rev. Frank Christol (1884–1979) ²

before 1940 (perhaps earlier) to 1974

Charles Ratton (1895–1986), Paris, France

1974-?

Charles-François Ratton (son of Charles), Paris by gift from the above ³

Bernard Dulon, Paris, France ⁴

Yves Develon ⁵

-2006

Private collection, Paris by purchase from Yves Develon (sold on their behalf by Galerie Bernard Dulon, Paris, France, to the Cleveland Museum of Art) ⁶

2006-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

¹Harter Pierre. 1986. Arts Ancien Du Cameroun. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique Noire, p. 282

²Pierre Harter (b. 1928) suggested this may have been amongst a group of objects that Christol sold to Ratton. Unpublished/undated text, curatorial file.

³Nouveau Drouot auction house, Arts Primitifs, July 2, 1987. Lot 216, p 39. Note: though listed, this work did not sell at this auction.

⁴Email with Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2/23/2021; CMA Curatorial File.

⁵Email with Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2/23/2021; CMA Curatorial File.

⁶Email with Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2/23/2021; CMA Curatorial File.

Citations

Biro, Yaëlle. 2018. “The Canon and Its Consequences : The Reception of Bamileke Tsesah Crests.” Tribal Art: 22 (2) No. 87 Spring 2018 Pages 118-131. Fig. 17 (ca. 1925 photograph by Frank Christol)

Print: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "Sitting Pretty." Apollo Magazine, July/August 2023, pp. 60–65

Online: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "How a leopard stool from Cameroon got its spots." Apollo Magazine. July 3, 2023. www.apollo-magazine.com

Harter, Pierre. Arts anciens du Cameroun. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique noire, 1986. p. 280

Hôtel Drouot. Arts primitifs. 1987. lot 216

Musée national des arts africains et océaniens, Louis Perrois, and Henri Marchal. Les rois sculpteurs: art et pouvoir dans le grassland camerounais : legs Pierre Harter. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993. p. 61

Notué, Jean-Paul, and Bianca Triaca. Bandjoun: trésors royaux au Cameroun : Bandjoun, tradition dynamique, création et vie : catalogue du Musée de Bandjoun. Milan: 5 continents, 2005. p. 54

Lintig, Bettina von, and Hughes Dubois. Cameroun. [Montreuil]: [Gourcuff Gradenigo Paris], 2006. pp. 127-29, 168-69

Annual Report, July 1, 2006--July 30, 2007. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. pp. 30-31

Petridis, Constantine, "King Kamga's Travel Stool", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 05, May/June 2007. Mentioned & reproduced: pp. 6-7 archive.org

Petridis, Constantine. “New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” African Arts 44, no. 1 (2011). pp. 52-67, fig. 8, note 12 www.jstor.org

Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 56 - 57

Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. 244-5

Lintig, Bettina von. 2014. "A Grasslands Beaded Leopard Skin." Tribal Art vol. 18:3, no. 72 (summer). pp. 108-117, fig. 6

Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022. cat. no. 22, pp. 52, 316

Petridis, Constantine. 2022. "The Language of Beauty in African Art." Tribal Art vol. 26:4, no. 105 (autumn). pp. 70-79 [reproduced as Fig. 6 on p. 73

"The Language of Beauty in African Art." Kimbell Art Museum Members' Guide (March–September 2022): 2-7. Reproduced: P. 3.

Exhibition history

Pierre Harter, Arts anciens du Cameroun (Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique Noire, 1986), p. 280 (reproduces the field-photograph Father Frank Christol made in 1925, the original of which is preserved in the archives of the Musée de l'Homme, Paris).

Pierre Harter, Les Rois sculpteurs, exh. cat. (Paris: RMN, 1993), p. 61.

Jean-Paul Notue & Bianca Triaca, Bandjoun (Milan: 5 Continets, 2005), p. 54.

Bettina von Lintig, Cameroun, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2006), p. 125-26 (field photo), 127-29 (object as such).

The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african....

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{{cite web|title=Prestige stool (Kuo fo)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.138|year=possibly 1800s|access-date=09 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Prestige stool (Kuo fo)

Prestige stool (Kuo fo)

Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Bandjoun Kingdom, Bamileke makers

Location

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Description

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Provenance Footnotes

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