Asafo Flag

late 19th century

African Art

Not on view

Medium

Imported cotton, dye, and thread

Dimensions

flag panel: 33 1/2 × 49 × 1/8 in. (85.1 × 124.5 × 0.3 cm)

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund

Accession Number

2021.32.1

Geography

Elmina, Ghana

Culture

Fante

Period

19th century

Classification

Textiles

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Commissioned by the No. 4 Elmina Company, Elmina, Ghana, late 19th century[see note 1]; sold to Kwasi Adu-Agyei, Accra, Ghana, 2017; sold to Duncan Clarke (Alfie’s Antiques Market), London, 2017; sold through Emilie Irving (Xenomania), New York, to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 2021

Note 1: This flag was produced for the Asafo military company (No. 4 Elmina) in the late nineteenth century and sold directly by officials of that company. When company officials decide to sell a group of old flags they will commission replacements at the same time. In this case the flag was part of a group of about ten, most of which were in very poor condition. (email from Duncan Clarke to the Gallery, May 11, 2021, curatorial object file)

Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

banners

Subject

canoes fish (animals) men nets (objects)

Technical metadata and APIs

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