Cleveland Museum of Art

Pendant: Crocodile

Date

1930 or earlier

Medium

Gold

Culture

Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, probably Baule-style goldsmith

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This pendant was cast in gold using the lost-wax method. Gold objects are the only Baule art forms associated with ancestor spirits. Pendants can have many uses. Usually hidden in pots or suitcases, gold adornments can be displayed on important occasions such as funerals. They can be laid out around the corpse before burial. A widow will wear them on a chain around her neck or attached to her hair at the ceremony signaling the end of mourning. A goldsmith had to create superfine rolls of wax to make the texture of this piece; the wax was used to make a mold into which liquid gold was poured.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.