{"data": {"id": 123778, "accession_number": "1944.290", "share_license_status": "CC0", "tombstone": "Disk Pendant (akrafok\u0254nmu), 1800s, before 1871; pin added later. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths\u2019 guild. Gold; overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Albert Ford Memorial Fund, 1944.290", "current_location": "108C African Jewelry and Metalwork", "title": "Disk Pendant (akrafok\u0254nmu)", "creation_date": "1800s, before 1871; pin added later", "creation_date_earliest": 1800, "creation_date_latest": 1870, "artists_tags": [], "culture": ["Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths\u2019 guild"], "technique": "Gold", "support_materials": [], "department": "African Art", "collection": "African Art", "type": "Jewelry", "measurements": "Overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.)", "dimensions": {"overall": {"height": 0.07, "height_inch": 2, "height_inch_fraction": 0.75, "width": 0.076, "width_inch": 3, "width_inch_fraction": 0.0, "depth": 0.016, "depth_inch": 0, "depth_inch_fraction": 0.625}}, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": null, "inscriptions": [], "exhibitions": {"current": [{"id": 519209, "title": "The Imagination of Primitive Man", "description": "<i>The Imagination of Primitive Man</i>. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).", "opening_date": "1962-01-18T05:00:00"}, {"id": 444266, "title": "The Arts of Ghana", "description": "<i>The Arts of Ghana</i>. Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (October 11-December 11, 1977); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (February 11-March 26, 1978); The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (May 3-July 2, 1978).", "opening_date": "1977-10-11T04:00:00"}, {"id": 181802, "title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", "description": "<i>The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</i>. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).", "opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"}], "legacy": [{"description": "College of Science Dublin - c. 1870s or 1880s", "opening_date": null}, {"description": "Portland Art Museum (11/21/1952 - 12/28/1952): \"Exhibition of Jewelry\"", "opening_date": "1952-11-21T00:00:00"}, {"description": "Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (1/18/1962 - 2/25/1962): \"The Imagination of Primitive Man\"", "opening_date": "1962-01-18T00:00:00"}, {"description": "UCLA Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles (September 1977 - 8/1/1978): \"The Arts of Ghana\", traveling exhibition", "opening_date": "1978-08-01T00:00:00"}, {"description": "MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): \"The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art\"", "opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"}]}, "provenance": [{"description": "Dr. Harry T. Reilly reportedly by gift from three Asante chiefs", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Letter from Jennie Devin Reilly, March 23, 1886 (CMA Curatorial File)</div>"], "date": "before 1871", "sortorder": 1}, {"description": "Jennie Devin Reilly, Washington, D.C.", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Letter from Jennie Devin Reilly, March 23, 1886 (CMA Curatorial File)</div>"], "date": "about 1871\u20131886", "sortorder": 2}, {"description": "Thomas F. Meehan, by descent to his son-in-law Alfred B. Cadley", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Letter from Alfred B. Cadley, May 5, 1944; Letter from Jeannie Devin Reilly, March 23, 1886 (CMA Curatorial File). For ID of \"father in law\" of Cadley, as described in Reilly letter, see p. 119 \u201cNotes and Comments.\u201d <em>The Catholic Historical Review</em> 29, no. 1 (1943): 118\u201332. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25014264.</div>"], "date": "1886\u2013", "sortorder": 3}, {"description": "(Alfred B. Cadley Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block-->Letter from Alfred B. Cadley, May 5, 1944 (CMA Curatorial File)</div>"], "date": "?\u20131944", "sortorder": 4}, {"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH", "citations": [], "footnotes": ["<div><!--block--><em>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>, December 1944</div>"], "date": "1944\u2013", "sortorder": 5}], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": "An 1886 letter indicates that the English doctor Harry T. Reilly received this disk as a gift from three Asante chiefs for providing them with medical care while they were imprisoned in Cape Coast Castle in the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Ashanti war (1863-64).", "early_education_description": null, "artlens_description": null, "description": "Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these <em>akrafo </em>(\u201csoul people\u201d) since the 1800s, they are often linked to <em>kradware, </em>officials who represent and purify (\u201cwash\u201d) the king\u2019s soul. To make them, goldsmiths cast or flattened gold. Muslim North African gold coins likely inspired their form and material, while concentric water rings influenced their composition. This small disc is a typical pre-colonial example. Gold ornament making ceased until 1924; court officials now wear large discs.", "external_resources": {"wikidata": ["https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79901173"], "internet_archive": ["https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1944.290-disk-pendant-akrafok"]}, "citations": [{"citation": "Foote, Helen S. \u201cA Gold Ornament from Ashanti.\u201d <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 31, no. 10 (December 1944): p. 180-181.", "page_number": "Image p. 178.", "url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141167"}, {"citation": "Coe, Ralph T. The Imagination of Primitive Man. Catalogue of the exhibition. Kansas City, KS: The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, 1962: no. 34.", "page_number": "", "url": ""}, {"citation": "The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, December 1944:180-181, image p. 178", "page_number": "", "url": ""}, {"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. <em>The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.", "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32, no. 36", "url": ""}, {"citation": "Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. <em>The Arts of Ghana</em>. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1977.", "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 153; reproduced: p. 156, fig. 325", "url": null}, {"citation": "William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World.</em> Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.", "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 25, cat. no. 34", "url": null}, {"citation": "\u201cMuseum News.\u201d <em>Tribal Art 30</em>, i. 2 (Spring 2026): 28-41.", "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 39", "url": ""}, {"citation": "\"Happenings: Silver, Gold, and Gems: A Spotlight on Jewelry Across America.\u201d <em>Metalsmith</em> 46, n. 2 (2026): 80-81.", "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 80", "url": ""}], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290", "images": {"annotation": null, "web": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_web.jpg", "width": "900", "height": "824", "filesize": "175076", "filename": "1944.290_web.jpg"}, "print": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_print.jpg", "width": "3400", "height": "3114", "filesize": "2067142", "filename": "1944.290_print.jpg"}, "full": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_full.tif", "width": "10157", "height": "9303", "filesize": "283499572", "filename": "1944.290_full.tif"}}, "alternate_images": [{"web": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt0_web.jpg", "width": "900", "height": "807", "filesize": "161320"}, "print": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt0_print.jpg", "width": "3400", "height": "3049", "filesize": "1968497"}, "full": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt0_full.tif", "width": "10373", "height": "9303", "filesize": "289528076"}, "date_created": "2025-10-02T22:42:19", "annotation": ""}, {"web": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt1_web.jpg", "width": "900", "height": "612", "filesize": "217503"}, "print": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt1_print.jpg", "width": "3400", "height": "2313", "filesize": "1490473"}, "full": {"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1944.290/1944.290_alt1_full.tif", "width": "4966", "height": "3379", "filesize": "50364292"}, "date_created": "2009-06-12T15:14:35", "annotation": ""}], "creditline": "James Albert Ford Memorial Fund", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 123778, "creators": [], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "1944-07-12T00:00:00", "sortable_date": 1800, "date_added_to_oa": null, "date_text": "1800s, before 1871; pin added later", "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": ["Soul Disk Pendant (krakonmu)"], "is_highlight": false, "updated_at": "2026-07-30 15:30:46.188000"}}