2007.34.4 Crown with gilded attachments

Currently settled in modern-day Côte d’Ivoire, the Baule have a variety of gold regalia for their influential class, including golden rings, bracelets, crowns, and footwear. This particular crown takes the form of a narrow velvet headband. Small wooden ornaments covered in gold foil dot the surface. These decorative elements include beads, masks, horns, and bamboo doors (srala). The patterned rectangles, or srala, resemble the screens hung at the entryways to bedrooms in traditional Baule houses. Just as a screen allows one to see both inside and outside a room, a leader must know what happens within and beyond his village.

Roslyn A. Walker, Label text, Arts of Africa, 2018

Baule (culture): AAT: 300016009

Côte d'Ivoire (nation): TGN: 1000168

velvet (fabric weave): AAT: 300133711

wood (plant material): AAT: 300011914

gold (metal): AAT: 300011021

gold leaf: AAT: 300264831

twentieth century (dates CE): AAT: 300404514

beads (pierced objects): AAT: 300234006

crowns (headdresses): AAT: 300046020

jewelry worn on the head: AAT: 300209301

ornaments: AAT: 300266794

prestige: AAT: 300343604

regalia: AAT: 300185696

c. 1950-2006: private collection, Switzerland [1]

2006: Aspects of Africa, St. James NY [2]

2007: Dallas Museum of Art, African Collection Fund, purchase from above

The main source for this provenance is the object summary dated April 8, 2011, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file. Supplementary documentation is noted. 

[1] See the acquisition proposal, dated March 12, 2007, copy in object file. 

[2] See letter from Carol Griffin of the Dallas Museum of Art to Charles D. Miller, III of Aspects of Africa, dated April 24, 2007, copy in object file. 

188988217: UMO

Apply to objects where number equals 2007.34.4