© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAfrican Art

Pipe Bowl

Place CreatedCameroon, Africa

CultureBamum (?)

Date20th Century

MediumClay

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions5 1/2 x 3 1/8 x 4 5/16 in. (14 x 8 x 11 cm)

Object number1994.004.562

Label TextIn the Cameroon Grassfields, townspeople smoke from simple clay pipes, while more ornately decorated pipes are reserved for royalty. Elaborate pipes of clay or bronze serve as indicators of prestige and are either smoked by the king or displayed by royal retainers during important occasions and ceremonies.

The figure on the bowl of this pipe wears a prestige headdress and sits in a meditative pose suggestive of his position as a judge. The double-headed serpent appearing around the forehead of the figure is one of the highest ranking royal symbols among the Bamum, a Grassfields people. Most commonly used as a reference to the ruling power of Mbuembue, an ancestral warrior king who ruled in the early 19th century, the two-headed serpent is seen as powerful and perceptive, able to strike in both directions - a fitting symbol of a warrior king. This pipe was probably used during the arbitration of disputes.
Exhibition HistoryCameroon: An Exhibition of African Art from the Collection of William & Robert Arnett, The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 16 - March 20, 1977
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 3, September 26, 1998 - Spring 2003
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, July 19, 2003 - March 13, 2007
Published ReferencesMarcilene K. Wittmer, Cameroon: An Exhibition of African Art from the Collection of William & Robert Arnett (Atlanta: William S. Arnett, 1977), 47, number 76.

ProvenanceEx coll. William S. Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, by 1977.

Status

Not on view

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