© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Michael McKelvey.

ClassificationsAfrican Art

Cap with Figure of a Leopard

Place CreatedCameroon, Africa

Dateearly 20th-mid 20th Century

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions9 x 7 15/16 x 9 1/2 in. (22.9 x 20.2 x 24.1 cm)

Object number1994.004.753

Label TextLeopards are symbols commonly associated with chiefship or kingship in both Cameroon and Nigeria. The mask ensemble in which this is the crown section would have included either raffia fiber or a textile to cover the face and body of the masquerader. However the cap lacks the usual perforations that would have enabled it to be attached to the rest of the costume and shows no signs of wear. It therefore may have been carved at the request of an early missionary or German colonial official in Bali or Foumban, though the style originates elsewhere in the Grassfields.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Installation, May 11, 1993 - July 1994
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 1, December 15, 1995 - February 1997
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 2, February 1997 - July 1998
Published ReferencesMarcilene K. Wittmer, Cameroon: An Exhibition of African Art from the Collection of William & Robert Arnett (Atlanta: William Arnett, 1977), 29, number 42.

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1977.

Status

Not on view

Collections