An old Ashanti stool, used for a long time, in ‘classic’ form. With a broad, concave seat, curved below, and a base plate stepped at the left and right. The rectangular central column is hollow (hollowed from below), decorated on the front and back with geometric openwork, as well as with chip-carving ornament. The four side supports bear on the outside rounded bands of spikes as decoration. The lowest step is also decorated with deep relief in the form of crosses and bands. All carved from a single piece of light-coloured, hard wood. The stool shows old cracks to the two rear supports and the central column on the back, insignificant breaks due to age on the narrow edge of the seat and on the base plate, as well as on the exterior bands of spikes.
For the Ashanti, their stools mean more than simply a piece of daily furniture. They are part of the individual personality of their owner: each man, each woman has his or her own stool. If it is not ‘occupied’, the stool is leant against the nearest wall, so that no erratic ‘evil spirit’ can appropriate it. If an important ‘owner’ dies, his personal stool is dyed black or dark brown. It is kept in the house, and nobody may sit on it in the future. In this manner amongst the Ashanti an object of daily life becomes an almost ‘sacred’ remembrance memorial to important ancestors.
Height: c. 39 cm, width: 55 cm; depth: 27 cm (the seat). First half of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Austrian private collection.

Lit.: ‘Afrikanische Sitze’ by Sandro Bocola, p. 74, ill. 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 et passim.