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{
    "localId": "115161",
    "label": "Knife-sheath tip (sika boha)",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "115161",
    "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 lifeforce (<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 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/1935.308",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80008265"
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Arms and Armor"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.308/1935.308_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.308/1935.308_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.308/1935.308_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Overall: 6.9 cm (2 11/16 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild"
    ],
    "accession": "1935.308"
}

{
    "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: 6.9 cm (2 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1935.308",
    "collection": "African Art",
    "didYouKnow": "Gold objects like this were frequently melted down to make new objects in new fashions.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Ratton, Charles. « Les bijoux en forme de disque etc. » Special Issue,<em> Présence Africaine </em>: <em>L'Art </em>Nègre 10-11. Paris : Aux Editions du Seuil (1951).",
            "page_number": "Ill. opp. p. 192, no. 101, text p. 152."
        },
        {
            "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": "L'Art Negre, Presence Africaine, 10-11, Aux Editions du Seuil, opp. p. 192, no. 101, text p. 152."
        },
        {
            "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": "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": "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": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 388",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n72"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. <em>African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989</em>. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 202-203, fig. 517"
        },
        {
            "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, 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": "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": "Walker, Roslyn A., Martha J. Ehrlich, Christraud M. Geary, M. D. McLeod, and Doran H. Ross. The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. Yale University Press, New Haven and London. Dallas : Dallas Museum of Art, 2018.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 29; Reproduced: p. 95, cat. 42"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.308",
    "creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:01:35.628000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.308/1935.308_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 115161,
    "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/1935.308/1935.308_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "f3dbb3c09e0dda8e"
}