Cameroonian Wood Stool

Squatting forms and crossed limbs hold up a seat marked with fine lines.

This wooden stool was carved in Cameroon, Central Africa, in the 20th century. Carved stools in the region are often associated with leadership, and figural ones are particularly valued. The seat edge is cut with fine incised lines and split by a gap. Beneath it, abstract bent limbs and angular forms cross and interlock, clustered around a central knot of carved shapes, and the whole rests on a round base with notched edges. The wood is dark and glossy where it has been handled.

About 15 inches high and 14 wide. Reads as a puzzle, in a good way.