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Jun 12, 2009

Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)

1800s, before 1871; pin added later

Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths’ guild

Gold

Overall: 7 x 7.6 x 1.6 cm (2 3/4 x 3 x 5/8 in.)

James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1944.290

Location

108C Akan & Yoruba

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).

Description

Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these akrafo (“soul people”) since the 1800s, they are often linked to kradware, officials who represent and purify (“wash”) the king’s 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.

Provenance

before 1871

Dr. Harry T. Reilly reportedly by gift from three Asante chiefs ¹

about 1871–1886

Jennie Devin Reilly, Washington, D.C. ²

1886–

Thomas F. Meehan, by descent to his son-in-law Alfred B. Cadley ³

?–1944

(Alfred B. Cadley Company, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) ⁴

1944–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH ⁵

Provenance Footnotes

¹Letter from Jennie Devin Reilly, March 23, 1886 (CMA Curatorial File)

²Letter from Jennie Devin Reilly, March 23, 1886 (CMA Curatorial File)

³Letter 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 “Notes and Comments.” The Catholic Historical Review 29, no. 1 (1943): 118–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25014264.

⁴Letter from Alfred B. Cadley, May 5, 1944 (CMA Curatorial File)

⁵Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, December 1944

Citations

Foote, Helen S. “A Gold Ornament from Ashanti.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 31, no. 10 (December 1944): p. 180-181. Image p. 178. www.jstor.org

Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32, no. 36

Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1977. Mentioned: p. 153; reproduced: p. 156, fig. 325

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 25, cat. no. 34

Exhibition history

College of Science Dublin - c. 1870s or 1880s

Portland Art Museum (11/21/1952 - 12/28/1952): "Exhibition of Jewelry"

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (1/18/1962 - 2/25/1962): "The Imagination of Primitive Man"

UCLA Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles (September 1977 - 8/1/1978): "The Arts of Ghana", traveling exhibition

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"

The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).

The Arts of Ghana. 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).

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290|year=1800s, before 1871; pin added later|access-date=02 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)

Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)

Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/ Kingdom, member of the goldsmiths’ guild

Location

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Description

Provenance Footnotes

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