Images(5)

Prestige Vessel (kuduo)

Artist Asante artist

Date19th century

MediumBrass

DimensionsH. 10 1/4 x Diam. 7 1/8 in. (26 x 18.1 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hanes

Object numberGL.72.19.17

On View

On view

Label TextAsante leaders keep these vessels in shrines, except when they are brought out for ceremonial occasions. On the lid the artist draws our attention to an event whose outcome remains uncertain: a leopard, stalked by a hunter, has caught an antelope in its jaws. At the hunter’s feet, a coiled snake is ready to strike. Relating to any number of proverbs, this scene can be told from different perspectives.

Metalsmiths adapted the kuduo form from similar containers imported by Muslim traders who crossed the Sahara. Cast in brass and used to store gold dust and precious beads, ornate vessels like this—among the few Asante objects that were individually owned—belonged to royalty, courtiers, and women of high status. Kuduo and their contents were often funerary offerings at their owners’ burials.
[A. Maples, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]Published References"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 12, nos. 1 and 2 (December 1973), group of objects on long-term loan listed 68.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 68.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 39.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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