Kuduo (container)

Artist Akan people, Asante subgroup

Place of OriginGhana

Date18th-19th century

Dimensions8 3/4 × 7 in. (22.2 × 17.8 cm)

Mediumcopper alloy, cast and raised, with incised decoration and traces of red pigment

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1994.23

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 01

Label TextAkan kings and courtiers of Ghana possessed treasure caskets called kuduo for storing precious objects such as gold dust, beads, and pendants. Kuduo were modeled after metal vessels imported into the region from North Africa and the Near East. The decoration around the surface of this unusually large and elaborate example is partly inspired by the Arabic scripts and plant-like motifs of Islamic designs. The combat motif on the lid—a solid copper cast of a leopard attacking a horned animal, probably a ferocious bush cow, or African buffalo—symbolizes the owner’s strength and courage. As an Akan proverb says, “A hungry leopard tries to eat any animal.”Published ReferencesWingert, P., African Negro Sculpture, San Francisco, W. H. DeYoung Memorial Museum, exh. catalogue, Spet. 24 - Nov. 19, 1948, fig. 30.

Delange, J., Arts et peuples de l"Afrique noire, Paris, 1967, pp. 51-76, fi. 54.

Ellis, G., "The Arts of Ghana," African Arts, vol. XL, no. 1, 1977, pp. 26-29, p. 27, illus.

Cole, H. and D. Ross, The Arts of Ghana, Los Angeles Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Frederick S. Wright Gallery, exh. cat., Oct. 4 - Dec. 11, 1977, pp. 64-68, fig. 125.

Southgate, M. Therese, "The cover," JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 281, no. 10, Mar. 10, 1999, p. 873, repr. (col.) on cover and p. 873.

Roberts, Mary Nooter, Facing Africa: The African Art Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1998, pp. 38-39, repr. (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 56, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryDallas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana, April 15, 2018-August 12, 2018.Comparative ReferencesSee also "Les Kuduo Ashanti," L'Art Nègre, Présence Africaine 10-11, Aux Éditions du Seuil, pp. 158-159.

See also Kjersmeier, C., Centres de Style de la Sculpture Nègre Africaine, vol. II, Paris and Copenhagen, 1936, fig. 15.

See also Objects et Mondes, La Revue du Musée de L'Homme, V, fasc. 3, 1965, pp. 198-199.

See also Leuzinger, E., The Art of Black Africa, Greenwich, 1972, pp. 124-130, fig. H-3.

See also National Museum of Ghana Handbook; Ethnographic, Historical and Art Collections, Ghana, 1973, pp. 22, fig. 12.

See also Garrad, T.F., "Akan Metal Arts," African Arts, XIII, I, 1979, African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles, pp. 36-43.

See also Gillou, W., A Short History of African Art, New York, c. 1984, p. 162, fig. 115.