id: 115164
accession number: 1935.311
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.311
updated: 2023-02-01 21:30:18.804000
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
title: Knife Handle Cover
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1800s
creation date earliest: 1886
creation date latest: 1896
current location: 108C Akan & Yoruba
creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund
copyright:
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culture: Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, Kumasi or probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths' guild
technique: Gold
department: African Art
collection: African Art
type: Arms and Armor
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
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measurements: Overall: 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art
opening date: 2000-02-01T00:00:00
Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).
title: The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana
opening date: 2018-04-15T04:00:00
The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (organizer) (April 15-August 12, 2018).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1935: "African Negro Art," cat. no. 162, (also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935).
NY: The Brooklyn Museum. Masterpieces of African Art, October 18, 1954-January 2, 1955, cat. no. 32.
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.
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PROVENANCE
Sir Cecil Hamilton Armitage
date:
footnotes:
*
Original object card (CMA Curatorial File)
citations:
(Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris, France via Pierre Matisse, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: ?–1935
footnotes:
* Original object card (CMA Curatorial File)
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1935–
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
Gold sheaths covered the cast iron blade of a king’s ceremonial knife (sikay), wrapping them with symbolism. In Akan states like the Asante Kingdom, gold embodies life force (kra) and is the sun’s earthly counterpart. Only goldsmiths’ 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 (repoussé technique). Small dots outlining some motifs were punched into the metal. Similarly decorated gold sheets and solid ornaments capped a knife’s handle.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page number: Reproduced: cat. 19, p.68 - 69
url:
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935.
page number: Mentioned: p. 39, no. 162.
url:
Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
page number: Mentioned: p. 22; reproduced: p. 23, fig. 13, p. 68, no. 18.
url:
Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page number: Mentioned: p. 112
url:
Brooklyn Museum. Masterpieces of African Art. Exhibition Dates: October 21, 1954-January 2, 1955. [Brooklyn]: Brooklyn Museum, 1954.
page number: Mentioned: p. 39
url:
Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
page number: Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 202-203, fig. 514
url:
Walker, Roslyn A., Martha J. Ehrlich, Christraud M. Geary, M. D. McLeod, and Doran H. Ross. The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana. Yale University Press, New Haven and London.Dallas : Dallas Museum of Art, 2018.
page number: Mentioned: p. 29; reproduced: p. 95, cat. 42
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1935.311/1935.311_full.tif