Baga Stool with Incised Top

A stool 28 inches across is less a seat than a small stage.

This stool with an incised top is Baga, from Guinea in West Africa, carved of wood in the 20th century. Among the Baga of coastal Guinea, as across much of West Africa, a carved stool was both a practical seat and a mark of standing, often kept for elders and people of rank. A broad round top has its edge cut with a band of hatched triangles. Beneath it, curved wooden straps bow outward around a central core and draw together near the ground. The surface is dark and glossy. Just over 16 inches high and 28 in diameter.

Sit if you like. It will hold its own either way.