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African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
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Prestige Stool
Cameroon, Grassfields Region, Fumban; Bamum peoples, 19th century
Wood, copper, shells, beads; H. 22 1/2 in. (57 cm)
Provenance: Given by King Ibrahim Njoya to Capt. Hans Glauning, Cameroon, 1905; Glauning family, Germany until 1928; [Arthur Speyer, Sr., Berlin, 1928]; Charles Ratton, Paris, 1936; [Guy Ladrière, Paris, 1981]; Barbier-Mueller collection, since 1985
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In 1905, the Bamum sovereign, King Ibrahim Njoya, offered this elaborately carved and ornamented seat to a German captain, Hans Glauning, as a tribute to their alliance. The circular seating surface is supported by four figures that represent royal servants. Each figure leans forward, touching his chin with the left hand in a sign of reverence and submission. Both this gesture and the position of the supporting attendants allude to the hierarchical relationship of the king to his retainers. Lavishly decorated with costly colored beads, cowrie shells, and copper foil, this royal seat was originally part of Njoya's treasury. Through the abstract graphic motifs of alternate blue and white triangles on the lip of the stool that symbolize the pelt of a leopard, and zigzags on the servants' legs depicting stylized frogs, this seat emphasized the king's identity as his people's leader, responsible for their prosperity.
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