Pendant: Crocodile (1930 or earlier): Art, History and Details

Pendant: Crocodile (1930 or earlier) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This pendant was cast in gold using the lost-wax method. Gold objects are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestor spirits. Pendants can have many uses. Usually hidden in pots or suitcases, gold adornments can be displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They can be laid out around the corpse before burial. A widow will wear them on a chain around her neck or attached to her hair at the ceremony signaling the end of mourning.

Object facts

• Title: Pendant: Crocodile
• Date: 1930 or earlier
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, probably Baule-style goldsmith
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: Gold
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.9 cm (1 15/16 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1952.265

A detail from the museum

A goldsmith had to create superfine rolls of wax to make the texture of this piece; the wax was used to make a mold into which liquid gold was poured.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Radin, Paul, and James Johnson Sweeney. African Folktales & Sculpture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952.
• Brooklyn Museum. Masterpieces of African Art. Exhibition Dates: October 21, 1954-January 2, 1955. [Brooklyn]: Brooklyn Museum, 1954.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.