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Prestige stool (Kuo fo)
possibly 1800s
- Medium
- Wood, cotton, plant fiber, glass beads, and indigo
- Classification
- Furniture and woodwork
- Dimensions
- Overall: 51 x 38 x 43 cm (20 1/16 x 14 15/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Bandjoun Kingdom, Bamileke makers
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
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.
