Ornament Magazine The Art And Craft of Personal Adornment

OTUMFUO OSEI TUTU II ASANTEHENE at Manhyia Palace, Kumasi, Ghana, May 2004, SWORD ORNAMENT of a crocodile, by an Akan artist, CHIEF’S CROWN by an Akan artist, as seen in Ornament Magazine.

Visitors to West African Gold: Akan Regalia from the Glassell Collection, on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, are greeted by a large-scale color photograph of His Majesty Otumfuo Osci Tutu II, King of the Asante people of Ghana, taken at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi. The king is dressed in full regal finery that includes a velvet crown accented with gold-leaf-over-wood motifs; intricately woven and patterned kente cloth; and a massive gold bracelet. This is regalia with a capital R. Their traditions of gold artisanship have survived many upheavals, including the slave trade in the eighteenth century, which created a Diaspora of more than a half million Africans, mostly shipped to the Americas. (Today, the infamous “door of no return” at Cape Coast castle is an attraction for tourists, some of them descendants of slaves.)

BRACELET AND RINGS of Nana Diko Pim III, Edweso, Ghana, 1976, as seen in Ornament Magazine.

The rest of the exhibition displays a choice selection of objects—jewelry, sword handles, staff finials, figurative sculptures, sandals, etc.—from the Alfred J. Glassell, Jr. collection of African art. Glassell, who made his fortune in the oil and gas business, donated his extensive holdings to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1997. The museum in turn mounted a major exhibition of the work in 2002, accompanied by an impressive catalog with text by Doran H. Ross, director emeritus of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. The MFA Houston also organized the present smaller-scale iteration for its colleague institution on the East Coast.

The Akan peoples, which include the Asante and Fante, inhabit what was once known as the gold coast of Africa (extending into the Côte d’Ivoire). While the objects in the exhibition date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the legacy of gold artistry goes back many centuries. “The people here are very ingenious in making things,” reported a European visitor in the late 1500s, “especially in working gold; for they make remarkably beautiful gold chains and other ornaments, such as Rings etc.”

Akan artists in Ghana—none of them identified by name —created most of the work in the exhibition. Several different techniques are used to shape the gold, including repoussé and “lost wax” casting. A number of pieces consist of carved wood with gold leaf overlay made by hammering small amounts of gold into pliable sheets on a steel anvil. Small gold staples were once the favorite means to affix the gold leaf to the carving; nowadays, glue is preferred.

STAFF FINIAL of a man climbing a tree assisted by a second man, by an Akan artist, as seen in Ornament Magazine.

Many of the motifs in the jewelry evoke proverbs with significance to the regal wearer, such as “fish out of water dies, king without followers ceases to exist.” The starburst pattern that decorates certain rings is related to insect cocoons that disguise themselves. A simple message is conveyed through this design: “A person’s character is not easily deciphered.”

The royal necklaces are often a seemingly random assortment of gold objects strung on fiber cord. According to Akan belief, these asuman (translated as charm, amulet or talisman) have the power to ward off malevolent forces, but they may carry a multitude of meanings. As Doran Ross has observed, “The variety of chain and bead designs alone has a vocabulary of identification and interpretation that remains someone’s future dissertation.” On the other hand, some jewelry simply signifies wealth, such as a necklace that incorporates gold nuggets.

Of the one hundred or so examples of royal dress and adornment in the show, none is more remarkable than a chief’s black leather sandals adorned with insect cocoons and coiled serpents in wood covered in gold leaf. Ethnographers have determined that of all of the king’s adornments, the sandals may be the most significant representation of his power. By tradition it is forbidden for a king to walk barefoot, for to do so, it is believed, would invite calamity to the state.

Describing his passion for the West African art in his collection, Glassell points to its inventiveness and “original and sometimes amusing artistry.” Whether purposely comical, a number of these ornaments are wonderfully fanciful. One ring shows a boy holding the tail of a lion—a way of saying “inexperience and youth can be dangerous.”

SWORD HILT of a pineapple, by an Akan artist, as seen in Ornament Magazine.

Of special appeal are the staff finials that depict scenes from life. One of them shows a man climbing a tree getting a boost up from a second man—a vignette of great charm with a special significance: “If your goals are worthwhile, you will gain support.” The staff is the symbol of office for the king’s counselors, called akyeame, who also wear sumptuous finery.

The show includes four outstanding examples of textiles—three kente and one akunintam—recently acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The kente cloth, with its complex design, is woven in cotton and silk on horizontal, narrow-band treadle looms, the standard looms of West Africa. The strips of woven cloth are then sewn together to form a large, rectangular cloth. The akunintam are large wrappers of locally woven or imported black cloth that feature intricate embroidery. The example in the exhibition is made from a British wool trade blanket and embroidered with rayon in the colors of the Ghanaian flag: red, green and yellow.

According to the exhibition literature, about five hundred named warp and weft patterns have been identified among current kente producers. These patterns incorporate proverbs, sayings, chiefly virtues and historical events. Both cloth and gold speak the language of the Akan peoples, which is rich in every sense of the word.

West African Gold: Akan Regalia from the Glassell Collection runs through March 26, 2006, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. For general visitor information, call 617.267.9300.

Published in Ornament Magazine, Volume 29, No. 2, 2005.
—Author Carl Little is a contributing author of Ornament based in Mt. Desert, Maine
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