Cleveland Museum of Art

Prestige Headdress (Ashetu or shüötu)

Date

1900–1950

Medium

cotton, dye (including indigo)

Culture

Bamum style, unknown maker, Grassfields region, Cameroon

Department

African Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The bristle-like surface of this man’s prestige headdress is dyed with indigo or a red pigment. Below, a diamond pattern evokes another royal symbol, the leopard. The projections are reinforced with small pieces of wood. Such extensions are seen on prestige headgear represented in wood in sculptures and in colored pencil on drawings in the collection . Titled men still wear such prestigious adornment today.

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