OMG that Artifact!

Stool

Ngala or Poto, 19th-20th century

The National Museum of African Art

“This stool was carved from a single block of wood. Special attention has been paid to the embellishment of the surface with imported brass tacks. Stools like this one are illustrated in European travelers’ accounts of their visits to Central Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such stools were the perogative of chiefs or important individuals who could afford the relatively expensive brass tacks used to decorate them.”