Royal scepter/fly whisk

early 20th century

Waving gently in front of the fon, this face with full cheeks would have been used by a servant to fan his master while rest or while holding audience. The horsetail reminded the Kom of their victory over the Fulani--swift horse mounted riders--in the late 1830's.

Wood, trade glass beads, copper, leather, and horse hair

6 x 5 7/8 in. (15.24 x 14.92 cm)

L.: 44 in.

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.732

Provenance: [Paul Gebauer, Cameroon]; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1971; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., pp. 177-9, reproduced pl. 216 (as fly whisk).

Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, The Ubiquitous Bead, Sept. 5 - Oct. 25, 1987.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, African Panoplies: Art for Rulers, Traders, Hunters, and Priests, Apr. 21 - Aug. 14, 1988.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 114, 131, reproduced pl. 70.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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