Ashanti Chief's Court - Head Chief

Carved wooden sculpture of a man with short hair and a knotted headdress, sitting on a chair, wearing a shawl and sandals and holding an object with a tassel at one end. He wears a cloth and a gold bracelet. He holds a whisk made of a cow's tail. Across his shoulder is a chain of gold. His head was pressed into this shape at birth as a sign of membership in the royal family. Part of a group of wood carvings representing the Head Chief of an Ashanti territorial division and his immediate entourage. Encased in a special wood box. Carved by the leading carver of Achimota, Gold Coast, Africa, from Sese wood and presented to FDR on June 29, 1943, by the His Excellency, Rt. Hon. The Viscount Swinton, Resident Minister for West Africa, Accra, Gold Coast as a souvenir of the Casablanca Conference. FDR Library Museum Collection, MO 1944.32.1.2.