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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
164629
label
Prestige stool (Kuo fo)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
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
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60757358
genreSpecific
Furniture and woodwork
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
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.
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
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
citation
Franklin, David. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> London: Scala Arts & 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.
creditline
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
sketchfabId
5722f792fa484993bc06ca6f0c0244fb
updatedAt
2026-06-18 21:17:14.024000
sourceId
164629
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood, cotton, plant fiber, glass beads, and indigo
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
49c46589ab96a2b4