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{
    "localId": "115162",
    "label": "Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "115162",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)",
    "description": "Gold sheaths covered the cast iron blade of a king’s ceremonial knife (<em>sikay</em>), wrapping them with symbolism. In Akan states like the Asante Kingdom, gold embodies life force (<em>kra</em>) and is the sun’s earthly counterpart. Only goldsmiths’ guild members could make gold ornaments for the royals and their entourage, or for the royal treasury. Here, the goldsmith used a tool to push the raised floral, leaf, and geometric designs from the back of a soft sheet of gold (repoussé technique). Small dots outlining some motifs were punched into the metal. Similarly decorated gold sheets and solid ornaments capped a knife’s handle.",
    "date": "1800s",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.309",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80008267"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Arms and Armor"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.309/1935.309_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.309/1935.309_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.309/1935.309_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 6.4 x 2.1 cm (2 1/2 x 13/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild"
    ],
    "accession": "1935.309"
}

{
    "tec": "Gold",
    "tombstone": "Knife-sheath tip (sika boha), 1800s. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild. Gold; overall: 6.4 x 2.1 cm (2 1/2 x 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1935.309",
    "collection": "African Art",
    "didYouKnow": "This chape would have been secured to the very tip of a knife sheath, modeled after European style sheaths.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Wixom, William D. “African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art,” <em>African Arts</em> 10, no. 3 (April 1977): 16-24.",
            "page_number": "Repr. p. 21."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Milliken, William. \"Exhibition of Gold.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>34, no. 9 (November 1947): 211-212.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 211-212; Reproduced: p. 235",
            "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141408"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 19, p. 68 - 69"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. <em>African Negro Art</em>. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 39, no. 162."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. <em>Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935.</em> New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 22; reproduced: p. 23, fig. 13, p. 68, no. 18."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Petridis, Constantine. \"A World of Great Art for Everyone.\" In <em>Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display.</em> Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 112"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Brooklyn Museum. <em>Masterpieces of African Art. Exhibition Dates: October 21, 1954-January 2, 1955</em>. [Brooklyn]: Brooklyn Museum, 1954.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 39"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. <em>African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989.</em> Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned: p. 202-203, fig 516"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Walker, Roslyn A., Martha J. Ehrlich, Christraud M. Geary, M. D. McLeod, and Doran H. Ross. <em>The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. </em>Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Dallas : Dallas Museum of Art, 2018.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 95, cat. 43"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.309",
    "creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:01:36.741000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.309/1935.309_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 115162,
    "dept": "African Art",
    "coll": "African Art",
    "med": "Gold",
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.309/1935.309_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "fe976a4f2ae8e365"
}