Prestige seat
Beginning in the sixteenth century, the coastal Duala rose to great regional prominence as intermediaries in trade networks that extended into the interior. This expertly crafted work, among the first by a Duala artist to be featured in a public U.S. collection, belongs to a small corpus of stools with curvilinear seats created in the 19th century for prominent elders. The open latticework of imagery characteristically features an avian form with prominent tail plumage and long beak. The unusual biped with curved tail and rows of triangular teeth may represent a crocodile-avian hybrid. The crocodile was among the ultimate symbols of regional authority for its association with danger and power on land and in the water.
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