Royal Stool

CultureAkan peoples, Asante subgroup

Dateca. 1860

MediumWood and silver

DimensionsOverall: 14 15/16 × 23 1/2 × 13 1/4 inches (37.92 × 59.69 × 33.66 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number65-5

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

African Art

Terms

Exhibition History

“African and Afro-American Art: Transatlantic Tradition,” Museum of Primitive Art, New York, September 11-November 3, 1968; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, December 10, 1968-February 4, 1969; Yale University Art Gallery, February 27-April 13, 1969.

Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, March 1972.

“The Arts of Ghana,” Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, October 11-December 11, 1977; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, February 11-March 26, 1978; and Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, May 3-July 2, 1978.

“Life…Afterlife: African Funerary Sculpture,” National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 1981-February 1982, no. 103.

“African Art in the Cycle of Life,” National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, September 28, 1987-March 20, 1988, no. 43.

“African Art: Permutations of Power,” Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, October 13, 1997-February 1, 1998, no. 6.

“African Cosmos: Stellar Arts,” National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, June 20-December 9, 2012; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, February 27-August 11, 2013.

“The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana,” Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, April 15-August 12, 2018, no. 25.

Gallery Label

This stool, richly embellished with strips of intricately patterned silver repoussé, is believed to be the ceremonial stool of a queen mother or high-ranking chief, despite the silver plaque identifying it as "King Koffee's State Chair." Asante stools of state are sacred symbols of political office. The installation, or "enstoolment" of an Asante king, chief or queen mother is accomplished by ritually placing the newly elected ruler upon the stool of office. Its distinctive form-a central shaft enclosed by curved supports-identifies it as a Kotokodwa, or "Porcupine stool," symbolizing invincibility.

Provenance

Possibly Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget (1851-1928), 1874 [1];

With Harry A. Franklin Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, by September 3, 1964-1965;

Purchased from Harry A. Franklin Gallery by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1965.

NOTES:

[1] A silver plaque on the stool reads: “King Koffee’s State Chair from his Palace at Comassie brought home by Arthur Paget, February 1873.” This plaque is a 1974 reproduction of a previous plaque of unknown date, which was on the stool at the time of the Nelson-Atkins purchase in 1965. Despite the plaque’s text, more recent scholarship has revealed that this stool was likely the ceremonial stool of a queen mother or a high-ranking chief. The plaque’s date is also incorrect: the British-Asante conflict that resulted in the removal of objects from the Kumasi palace, took place February 4-5, 1874. Kofi Karikari was the Asantehene (ruler of the Asante) in 1874.

Published References

Warren M. Robbins, African Art in American Collections (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966), 108, (repro).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri , vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973).

Herbert M. Cole and Doran H. Ross, The Arts of Ghana, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles, 1977), 136-138, (repro.).

Martha J. Ehrlich, A Catalogue of Ashanti Art taken from Kumasi in the Anglo-Ashanti War of 1874 (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1981), 439-441, (repro. fig. 273).

Roger Ward, ed., A Bountiful Decade: Selected Acquisitions, 1977-1987, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1987).

Margaret Bertin, “African Art: Masterworks take center stage in five exhibitions,” The Torch (September 1987), S-4, (repro.).

Roy Sieber and Roslyn Adele Walker, African Art in the Cycle of Life, exh. cat. (Washington, DC and London: National Museum of African Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987), 90, 147, (repro.)

Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 84, (repro.).

African Art: Permutations of Power, exh. cat. (Gainesville, FL: Harn Museum of Art, 1997), 8, 32, (repro.).

Joyce M. Youmans, “African Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” African Arts 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 43-44, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008). 245, (repro.).

Christine Mullen Kreamer, African Cosmos: Stellar Arts, exh. cat. (Washington, DC and New York, NY: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution and The Monacelli Press, 2012), 140-141, (repro.).

Catherine Meredith Hale, Asante Stools and the Matrilineage (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2013), 99-100, (repro.).

Roslyn A. Walker, ed., The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana, exh. cat. (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2018), 86, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.