Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu) (1800s, before 1896): Art, History and Details

Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu) (1800s, before 1896) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Gold discs dangling on the chests of Akan state officials and elites showed their rank and duties. Worn by these akrafo (“soul people”) since the 1800s, they are often linked to kradware, officials who represent and purify (“wash”) the king’s soul. To make them, goldsmiths cast or flattened gold. Muslim North African gold coins likely inspired their form and material, while concentric water rings influenced their composition. This small disc is a typical pre-colonial example: asantehene (king) Prempeh I reportedly owned this disk. The British emptied his treasury after deposing and exiling him in 1896. Gold ornament making ceased until 1924; court officials now wear large discs.

Object facts

• Title: Disk Pendant (akrafokɔnmu)
• Date: 1800s, before 1896
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante Empire/Kingdom, probably Kumasi, member of the goldsmiths’ guild
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: Gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 9.8 cm (3 7/8 in.); Overall: 1.3 cm (1/2 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1935.310

A detail from the museum

Akan goldsmiths were organized into guilds, a kind of specialized group of artisans.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sieber, Roy. African Textiles and Decorative Arts. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1972. P. 137.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. “African Textiles and Decorative Arts.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 9 (November 1973).
• Wixom, William D. “African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art,” African Arts 10, no. 3 (April 1977): 16-24.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.