Images(4)

Royal scepter/fly whisk

Dateearly 20th century

Label TextWaving 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.

Object number81.17.732

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

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

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.

Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

Dimensions6 x 5 7/8 in. (15.24 x 14.92 cm) L.: 44 in.

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