id: 94940
accession number: 1915.495
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.495
updated: 2025-07-11 17:02:30.264000
Lamellophone (chisanji), late 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo or Angola, Chokwe-style maker. Wood, iron, and wire; overall: 19.1 x 10.2 x 6.4 cm (7 1/2 x 4 x 2 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund, 1915.495
title: Lamellophone (chisanji)
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: late 1800s
creation date earliest: 1880
creation date latest: 1900
current location:
creditline: The Harold T. Clark Educational Extension Fund
copyright:
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culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo or Angola, Chokwe-style maker
technique: Wood, iron, and wire
department: African Art
collection: African Art
type: Musical Instrument
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
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measurements: Overall: 19.1 x 10.2 x 6.4 cm (7 1/2 x 4 x 2 1/2 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples
opening date: 1998-11-01T00:00:00
Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples. Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL (organizer) (November 1, 1998-January 3, 1999); The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (June 13-September 5, 1999); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN (October 24, 1999-January 16, 2000).
title: Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths
opening date: 2018-06-03T04:00:00
Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (June 3-December 30, 2018); National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC (February 10-October 20, 2019); Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France (November 10, 2019-August 16, 2020).
title: Narrative Wisdom and African Arts
opening date: 2024-10-19T04:00:00
Narrative Wisdom and African Arts. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO (organizer) (October 19, 2024-January 5, 2025) https://www.slam.org/exhibitions/narrative-wisdom-and-african-arts/.
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Sounding Forms: African Musical Instruments. The National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC (organizer)(April 23–June 18, 1989) The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (July 16-September 10, 1989); Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO (October 7-November 26, 1989); Musée des Arts Africains, Paris, France ( January 6-March 3, 1990).', 'opening_date': '1989-04-23T04:00:00Z'}
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PROVENANCE
(F. M. Rapp, probably by field collection in Portuguese West Africa (Angola) or Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo)
date: by 1915
footnotes:
*
"In the spring of 1916, Mr. F. M. Rapp, mining engineer, now at Tonopah, Nevada, returned from the Belgian Congo, Central Africa, where he has been engaged for two years in geological work along the Kasai River and its tributaries."
M. G. Edwards, "Diamond-bearing gravel from Belgian Congo," American Mineralogist (1917) 2 (7): 88–89.
citations:
(F. M. Rapp, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
date: 1915
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1915-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Wixom, WIlliam D. "African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art." In African Arts. 10, no. 3. (April 1977): 16-25.
page number: Mentioned: p. 16; reproduced: p. 19
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3335296
Bourgeois, Arthur P, et al. Sounding Forms : African Musical Instruments. Edited by Brincard Marie-Thérèse. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1989.
page number: Reproduced: p. 131, fig. 74.
url:
Chanda, Jacqueline. African Arts & Cultures. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, 1993.
page number: P. 75
url:
Jordán, Manuel, and Marie Louise Bastin. Chokwe!: Art and Initiation Among the Chokwe and Related Peoples. Munich: Prestel, 1998.
page number:
url:
Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page number: reproduced: fig. 2, p. 13
url:
Petridis, Constantine, "African Art Revisited", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 09, November 2003
page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2003-09/page/n3
Chemeche, George, and John Pemberton. The Horse Rider in African Art. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2011.
page number: p. 106
url:
Berzock, Kathleen Bickford, and Christa Clarke. Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page number: Reproduced: p. 105, fig. 5.1
url:
Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display, edited by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page number: Mentioned: p. 104; reproduced: p. 105, fig. 5.1
url:
Roberts, Allen F., Tom Joyce, Marla Berns, William Joseph Dewey, Henry John Drewal, Candice Lee Goucher, and Rowland Abiodun. Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths. Los Angeles, California: Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2019.
page number: Reproduced: p. 427, fig. 17.3; discussed: p. 430.
url:
Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019
page number: Reproduced: p. 18, fig. 1; mentioned: p. 19
url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1915.495/1915.495_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1915.495/1915.495_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1915.495/1915.495_full.tif