{"data": {"id": 115164, "accession_number": "1935.311", "share_license_status": "CC0", "tombstone": "Knife Handle Cover, 1800s. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild. Gold; overall: 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1935.311", "current_location": "108C African Jewelry and Metalwork", "title": "Knife Handle Cover", "creation_date": "1800s", "creation_date_earliest": 1886, "creation_date_latest": 1896, "artists_tags": [], "culture": ["Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild"], "technique": "Gold", "support_materials": [], "department": "African Art", "collection": "African Art", "type": "Arms and Armor", "measurements": "Overall: 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.)", "dimensions": {"overall": {"height": 0.043, "height_inch": 1, "height_inch_fraction": 0.6875}}, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": null, "inscriptions": [], "exhibitions": {"current": [{"id": 207289, "title": "Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art", "description": "<i>Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art</i>. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).", "opening_date": "2000-02-01T00:00:00"}, {"id": 297093, "title": "The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana", "description": "<i>The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana</i>. The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (April 15-August 12, 2018).", "opening_date": "2018-04-15T04:00:00"}], "legacy": [{"description": "NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1935: \"African Negro Art,\" cat. no. 162, (also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935).", "opening_date": "1927-09-01T00:00:00"}, {"description": "NY: The Brooklyn Museum.  Masterpieces of African Art, October 18, 1954-January 2, 1955, cat. no. 32.", "opening_date": "1954-10-18T00:00:00"}, {"description": "NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. \"Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art\" 2/1/00 - 9/3/00, exh. cat. no. 18, p. 68.", "opening_date": "2000-02-01T00:00:00"}]}, "provenance": [{"description": "Sir Cecil Hamilton Armitage", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Original object card (CMA Curatorial File)</div>"], "date": null, "sortorder": 1}, {"description": "(Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris, France via Pierre Matisse, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Original object card (CMA Curatorial File)</div>"], "date": "?\u20131935", "sortorder": 2}, {"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH", "citations": [], "footnotes": null, "date": "1935\u2013", "sortorder": 3}], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": "Only members of the goldsmiths' guild, who claimed descent from the first goldsmith Fusu Kwabi, could make gold ornaments for the royals and their entourage.", "early_education_description": null, "artlens_description": null, "description": "Gold sheaths covered the cast iron blade of a king\u2019s ceremonial knife (<em>sikay</em>), wrapping them with symbolism. In Akan states like the Asante Kingdom, gold embodies life force (<em>kra</em>) and is the sun\u2019s earthly counterpart. Only goldsmiths\u2019 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 a soft sheet of gold (repouss\u00e9 technique). Small dots outlining some motifs were punched into the metal. Similarly decorated gold sheets and solid ornaments capped a knife\u2019s handle.", "external_resources": {"wikidata": [], "internet_archive": ["https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1935.311-jewelry", "https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1935.311-knife-handle-cover"]}, "citations": [{"citation": "Wixom, William D. \u201cAfrican Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art.\u201d <em>African Arts</em> 10, no. 3 (April 1977): 16-24.", "page_number": "Repr. p. 21.", "url": ""}, {"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": "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", "url": ""}, {"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.", "url": null}, {"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.", "url": null}, {"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", "url": null}, {"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", "url": null}, {"citation": "Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter.<em> African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989</em>. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.", "page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 202-203, fig. 514", "url": null}, {"citation": "Walker, Roslyn A., Martha J. Ehrlich, Christraud M. Geary, M. D. McLeod, and Doran H. Ross.<em> The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana.</em> Yale University Press, New Haven and London.Dallas : Dallas Museum of Art, 2018.", "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 29; reproduced: p. 95, cat. 42", "url": null}], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.311", "images": {"annotation": null, "web": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_web.jpg", "width": "1161", "height": "893", "filesize": "498313", "filename": "1935.311_web.jpg"}, "print": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_print.jpg", "width": "3400", "height": "2616", "filesize": "4046051", "filename": "1935.311_print.jpg"}, "full": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_full.tif", "width": "4118", "height": "3168", "filesize": "39158596", "filename": "1935.311_full.tif"}}, "alternate_images": [], "creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 115164, "creators": [], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "1935-10-24T00:00:00", "sortable_date": 1886, "date_added_to_oa": null, "date_text": "1800s", "collapse_artists": false, "on_loan": false, "recently_acquired": false, "record_type": "object", "conservation_statement": null, "has_conservation_images": false, "cover_accession_number": null, "is_nazi_era_provenance": false, "impression": null, "alternate_titles": ["Ornament\r\n", "Jewelry"], "is_highlight": false, "updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:01:36.778000"}}