Seating Ottomans & Stools

Kumasi, and a stool is carried reverently through the crowd. It is not furniture. It holds a man’s soul.

Ottomans and stools start with African seats that carry centuries of meaning. Among the Ashanti of Ghana the stool holds its owner’s soul, and the Golden Stool, said to have been summoned from the sky by the priest Okomfo Anokye for the king Osei Tutu, embodies the nation. Bamileke and Bamenda stools from the Cameroon Grassfields are carved with the earth spider, symbol of wisdom and divination. Nupe stools from Nigeria rest on thick round bases. Lobi three-legged stools, Luba caryatid seats and stools of the Senufo, Kuba, Yoruba, Sukuma, Dan, Mossi and Edo of Benin complete a continent of forms. Chinese elmwood stools, stone drum seats and contemporary ottomans and barstools in leather, brass, cloth and silk sit alongside.

Carved from a single section of trunk, a Grassfields stool has the weight of sculpture.

Please sit. Gently.