Prestige stool ·  Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke · ID: 3035407

Description

wood, dark brown patina, ring-shaped base, corpus in openwork design, carved with four leopards, round seat with bulging rim, slightly dam., minor missing parts, cracks (seat), paint rubbed off;
The stool is the foremost prestige object as symbol of royal office. The act of sitting represents the Fon’s confidence and command sanctioned by tradition and his direct link to the royal ancestors, his predecessors on the throne. Coupled with royal icons used as caryatids, the stool explicitly upholds the Fon’s authority. The leopard embodies certain attributes like speediness, survivability and aggressiveness which were transferred on the king. So he became the most important royal symbol, like an “alter ego” of the king.

Comparing literature

Northern, Tamara, Expressions of Cameroon art, Michigan 1986, p. 28