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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.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
49c46589ab96a2b4
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
164629
Core
obj
Type
object
DTO data
{
    "id": "164629",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Prestige stool (Kuo fo)",
    "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.",
    "date": "possibly 1800s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.138",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60757358"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Furniture and woodwork"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 51 x 38 x 43 cm (20 1/16 x 14 15/16 x 16 15/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Bandjoun Kingdom, Bamileke makers"
    ],
    "accession": "2006.138"
}

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Document identity
{
    "localId": "164629",
    "label": "Prestige stool (Kuo fo)",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "164629",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Prestige stool (Kuo fo)",
    "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.",
    "date": "possibly 1800s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.138",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q60757358"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Furniture and woodwork"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 51 x 38 x 43 cm (20 1/16 x 14 15/16 x 16 15/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon, Bandjoun Kingdom, Bamileke makers"
    ],
    "accession": "2006.138"
}
Document source extras
{
    "tec": "Wood, cotton, plant fiber, glass beads, and indigo",
    "tombstone": "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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2006.138",
    "collection": "African Art",
    "didYouKnow": "The beads on this stool were sewn on by hand. Look underneath the stool, however, and you can see commercially made printed fabric.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Biro, Yaëlle. 2018. “The Canon and Its Consequences : The Reception of Bamileke Tsesah Crests.” <em>Tribal Art:</em> 22 (2) No. 87 Spring 2018 Pages 118-131. Fig. 17 (ca. 1925 photograph by Frank Christol)"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Print: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. \"Sitting Pretty.\" <em>Apollo Magazine</em>, July/August 2023, pp. 60–65<br><br>Online: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. \"How a leopard stool from Cameroon got its spots.\" <em>Apollo Magazine</em>. July 3, 2023.",
            "url": "https://www.apollo-magazine.com/cameroonian-leopard-stool-cleveland-museum-of-art/"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Harter, Pierre.<em> Arts anciens du Cameroun</em>. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique noire, 1986.",
            "page_number": "p. 280"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Hôtel Drouot.<em> Arts primitifs.</em> 1987.",
            "page_number": "lot 216"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Musée national des arts africains et océaniens, Louis Perrois, and Henri Marchal.<em> Les rois sculpteurs: art et pouvoir dans le grassland camerounais : legs Pierre Harter.</em> Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993.",
            "page_number": "p. 61"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Notué, Jean-Paul, and Bianca Triaca.<em> Bandjoun: trésors royaux au Cameroun : Bandjoun, tradition dynamique, création et vie : catalogue du Musée de Bandjoun</em>. Milan: 5 continents, 2005.",
            "page_number": "p. 54"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lintig, Bettina von, and Hughes Dubois. <em>Cameroun</em>. [Montreuil]: [Gourcuff Gradenigo Paris], 2006.",
            "page_number": "pp. 127-29, 168-69"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Annual Report, July 1, 2006--July 30, 2007.</em> Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
            "page_number": "pp. 30-31"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Petridis, Constantine, \"King Kamga's Travel Stool\", Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em>. Vol. 47 no. 05, May/June 2007.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: pp. 6-7",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2007-05/page/n5"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Petridis, Constantine. “New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” <em>African Arts</em> 44, no. 1 (2011).",
            "page_number": "pp. 52-67, fig. 8, note 12",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/41330706"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Franklin, David. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> London: Scala Arts &amp; Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 56 - 57"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.",
            "page_number": "244-5"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lintig, Bettina von. 2014. \"A Grasslands Beaded Leopard Skin.\" <em>Tribal Art</em> vol. 18:3, no. 72 (summer).",
            "page_number": "pp. 108-117, fig. 6"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. <em>The language of beauty in African art. </em>2022.",
            "page_number": "cat. no. 22, pp. 52, 316"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Petridis, Constantine. 2022. \"The Language of Beauty in African Art.\" <em>Tribal Art</em> vol. 26:4, no. 105 (autumn).",
            "page_number": "pp. 70-79 [reproduced as Fig. 6 on p. 73"
        },
        {
            "citation": "\"The Language of Beauty in African Art.\"<em> Kimbell Art Museum Members' Guide</em> (March–September 2022): 2-7.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced:  P. 3."
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2006.138",
    "creditline": "Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund",
    "sketchfabId": "5722f792fa484993bc06ca6f0c0244fb",
    "sketchfabUrl": "https://sketchfab.com/models/5722f792fa484993bc06ca6f0c0244fb",
    "updatedAt": "2026-06-18 21:17:14.024000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2006.138/2006.138_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 164629,
    "dept": "African Art",
    "coll": "African Art",
    "med": "Wood, cotton, plant fiber, glass beads, and indigo",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}
Page context
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