The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Prestige stool (Kuo fo)

Prestige stool (Kuo fo)

possibly 1800s
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The beads on this stool were sewn on by hand. Look underneath the stool, however, and you can see commercially made printed fabric.

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.
  • 19th century
    Possibly Fo (King) Fotso I and Fo Fotso II, Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon
    by at least 1925-
    Fo Kamga II Joseph (1902-1975; r. 1925-1975), Bandjoun Kingdom, Cameroon possibly by descent from the above
    1925
    possibly Rev. Frank Christol (1884–1979)
    before 1940 (perhaps earlier) to 1974
    Charles Ratton (1895–1986), Paris, France
    1974-?
    Charles-François Ratton (son of Charles), Paris by gift from the above
    Bernard Dulon, Paris, France
    Yves Develon
    -2006
    Private collection, Paris by purchase from Yves Develon (sold on their behalf by Galerie Bernard Dulon, Paris, France, to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2006-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Biro, Yaëlle. 2018. “The Canon and Its Consequences : The Reception of Bamileke Tsesah Crests.” Tribal Art: 22 (2) No. 87 Spring 2018 Pages 118-131. Fig. 17 (ca. 1925 photograph by Frank Christol)
    Print: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "Sitting Pretty." Apollo Magazine, July/August 2023, pp. 60–65

    Online: Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. "How a leopard stool from Cameroon got its spots." Apollo Magazine. July 3, 2023. www.apollo-magazine.com
    Harter, Pierre. Arts anciens du Cameroun. Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique noire, 1986. p. 280
    Hôtel Drouot. Arts primitifs. 1987. lot 216
    Musée national des arts africains et océaniens, Louis Perrois, and Henri Marchal. Les rois sculpteurs: art et pouvoir dans le grassland camerounais : legs Pierre Harter. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993. p. 61
    Notué, Jean-Paul, and Bianca Triaca. Bandjoun: trésors royaux au Cameroun : Bandjoun, tradition dynamique, création et vie : catalogue du Musée de Bandjoun. Milan: 5 continents, 2005. p. 54
    Lintig, Bettina von, and Hughes Dubois. Cameroun. [Montreuil]: [Gourcuff Gradenigo Paris], 2006. pp. 127-29, 168-69
    Annual Report, July 1, 2006--July 30, 2007. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007. pp. 30-31
    Petridis, Constantine, "King Kamga's Travel Stool", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 47 no. 05, May/June 2007. Mentioned & reproduced: pp. 6-7 archive.org
    Petridis, Constantine. “New Acquisitions of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” African Arts 44, no. 1 (2011). pp. 52-67, fig. 8, note 12 www.jstor.org
    Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 56 - 57
    Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. 244-5
    Lintig, Bettina von. 2014. "A Grasslands Beaded Leopard Skin." Tribal Art vol. 18:3, no. 72 (summer). pp. 108-117, fig. 6
    Rondeau, James, Constantijn Petridis, Yaëlle Biro, Herbert M. Cole, Kassim Kone, Babatunde Lawal, Wilfried Van Damme, and Susan Mullin Vogel. The language of beauty in African art. 2022. cat. no. 22, pp. 52, 316
    Petridis, Constantine. 2022. "The Language of Beauty in African Art." Tribal Art vol. 26:4, no. 105 (autumn). pp. 70-79 [reproduced as Fig. 6 on p. 73
    "The Language of Beauty in African Art." Kimbell Art Museum Members' Guide (March–September 2022): 2-7. Reproduced: P. 3.
  • The Language of Beauty in African Art. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (April 3-July 31, 2022) https://kimbellart.org/exhibition/language-beauty-african-art; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (November 20, 2022-February 27, 2023) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9344/the-language-of-beauty-in-african-art.
    Bettina von Lintig, Cameroun, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie Bernard Dulon, 2006), p. 125-26 (field photo), 127-29 (object as such).
    Jean-Paul Notue & Bianca Triaca, Bandjoun (Milan: 5 Continets, 2005), p. 54.
    Pierre Harter, Les Rois sculpteurs, exh. cat. (Paris: RMN, 1993), p. 61.
    Pierre Harter, Arts anciens du Cameroun (Arnouville: Arts d'Afrique Noire, 1986), p. 280 (reproduces the field-photograph Father Frank Christol made in 1925, the original of which is preserved in the archives of the Musée de l'Homme, Paris).
  • {{cite web|title=Prestige stool (Kuo fo)|url=false|author=|year=possibly 1800s|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2006.138