African Crest (Tsesah) | Met Collects

"Can an invention remain new?": Alisa LaGamma on the tsesah crest

For MetCollects, Alisa LaGamma, Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge of the Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, discusses the recently acquired tsesah crest by the Bamileke peoples of the from the Cameroon Grassfields region.

Featured Artwork:
Crest (tsesah), 18th century. Cameroon, Grassfields region. Bamileke peoples. Wood, 37 x 32 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (94 x 82.6 x 29.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Acquisitions and Rogers Funds, and Anonymous, James J. Ross, and Marian Malcolm Gifts, 2017 (2017.35)

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/735917

MetCollects introduces highlights of works of art recently acquired by the Met through gifts and purchases. Discover a new work each month.

Filmed in the exhibition
The Face of Dynasty: Royal Crests from Western Cameroon
At The Met Fifth Avenue
December 4, 2017–September 3, 2018

Other works courtesy of:
National Museum for African Art, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Walt Disney World Co., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
The Menil Collection, Houston
Private collection, Courtesy of McClain Gallery