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Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these <em>akrafo </em>(“soul people”) since the 1800s, they are often linked to <em>kradware, </em>officials who represent and purify (“wash”) the king’s soul. To make them, goldsmiths cast or flattened gold. Muslim North African gold coins likely inspired their form and material, while concentric water rings influenced their composition. This small disc is a typical pre-colonial example. Gold ornament making ceased until 1924; court officials now wear large discs.
Page data
- Page
- 1
- Source index
- 0
- Type
- photo
- Media ID
- a12827773b9e8af0
- Size
- unknown
Document data
- ID
- 123778
- Core
- obj
- Type
- object
DTO data
{
"id": "123778",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)",
"description": "Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these <em>akrafo </em>(“soul people”) since the 1800s, they are often linked to <em>kradware, </em>officials who represent and purify (“wash”) the king’s soul. To make them, goldsmiths cast or flattened gold. Muslim North African gold coins likely inspired their form and material, while concentric water rings influenced their composition. This small disc is a typical pre-colonial example. Gold ornament making ceased until 1924; court officials now wear large discs.",
"date": "1800s, before 1871; pin added later",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q79901173"
],
"genreSpecific": [
"Jewelry"
],
"iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.)",
"cul": [
"Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths’ guild"
],
"accession": "1944.29"
}
Context sent to Scholar
Document identity
{
"localId": "123778",
"label": "Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)",
"core": "obj",
"dtoType": "object"
}
Document source metadata
{
"id": "123778",
"contentType": "object",
"title": "Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)",
"description": "Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these <em>akrafo </em>(“soul people”) since the 1800s, they are often linked to <em>kradware, </em>officials who represent and purify (“wash”) the king’s soul. To make them, goldsmiths cast or flattened gold. Muslim North African gold coins likely inspired their form and material, while concentric water rings influenced their composition. This small disc is a typical pre-colonial example. Gold ornament making ceased until 1924; court officials now wear large discs.",
"date": "1800s, before 1871; pin added later",
"citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290",
"rights": "CC0",
"rightsUri": "CC0",
"language": "en",
"wikidata": [
"Q79901173"
],
"genreSpecific": [
"Jewelry"
],
"iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"imageCount": 1,
"source": "import",
"dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.)",
"cul": [
"Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths’ guild"
],
"accession": "1944.29"
}
Document source extras
{
"tec": "Gold",
"tombstone": "Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu), 1800s, before 1871; pin added later. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths’ guild. Gold; overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Albert Ford Memorial Fund, 1944.290",
"collection": "African Art",
"didYouKnow": "An 1886 letter indicates that the English doctor Harry T. Reilly received this disk as a gift from three Asante chiefs for providing them with medical care while they were imprisoned in Cape Coast Castle in the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Ashanti war (1863-64).",
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Foote, Helen S. “A Gold Ornament from Ashanti.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 31, no. 10 (December 1944): p. 180-181.",
"page_number": "Image p. 178.",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141167"
},
{
"citation": "Coe, Ralph T. The Imagination of Primitive Man. Catalogue of the exhibition. Kansas City, KS: The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, 1962: no. 34."
},
{
"citation": "The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, December 1944:180-181, image p. 178"
},
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. <em>The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32, no. 36"
},
{
"citation": "Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. <em>The Arts of Ghana</em>. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1977.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 153; reproduced: p. 156, fig. 325"
},
{
"citation": "William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World.</em> Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 25, cat. no. 34"
},
{
"citation": "“Museum News.” <em>Tribal Art 30</em>, i. 2 (Spring 2026): 28-41.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 39"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290",
"creditline": "James Albert Ford Memorial Fund",
"updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:22:39.188000",
"imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_print.jpg",
"sourceId": 123778,
"dept": "African Art",
"coll": "African Art",
"med": "Gold",
"thumbnail_url": null,
"image_url": null
}
Page context
{
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"type": "photo",
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg",
"mediaId": "a12827773b9e8af0"
}