Cameroonian Wood Stool

Drum-shaped seat covered in tiny diamonds, like armor for a stool.

This wooden stool from Cameroon is from Cameroon, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is wood. In the Grassfields kingdoms of Cameroon, carved wooden stools have traditionally been linked with rank and authority, and the most elaborate examples are associated with chiefs and royal courts. Squat cylindrical table with a thick plain top and a base ring, the whole sides latticed with rows of raised, pointed diamond bosses. Dark brown, rubbed pale at the top edge, with a visible crack across the top and small losses at one rim. It is 25 inches high and 31 in diameter.

Heavy on texture, and it has the splinters to prove it.