Lidded Box

Possibly late 18th-early 19th century

Senufo or Jula
Possibly Kong, Côte d’Ivoire
Northern Africa and the Sahel

One of only two extant examples, this valuable box likely served as a Qur’an container. It is believed to be the work of an artist of the Jula (or Dyula) culture, an ethnic group of nomadic Muslim merchants who live in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. The production of such a refined metal object reflects the spread and impact of Muslim culture in this vast area of West Africa since the 14th century.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Senufo
Title: Lidded Box
Place: Côte d'Ivoire (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1775–1825
Medium: Tin alloy
Dimensions: H.: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: African Decorative Arts Fund
Reference Number: 2018.361

Bohumil Holas. 1978. L’art sacré sénoufo. Abidjan: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, pp. 158-159 (ill.).
Karl–Ferdinand Schaedler, ed. 1997. Earth and Ore: 2500 Years of African Art in Terra–Cotta and Metal. Munich: Panterra, p. 99.
Nala Aloudat and Hanna Boghanim, eds., Trésors de l’Islam en Afrique: De Tomboctou à Zanzibar, exh. cat. (Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 2017), 14 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 16, pp. 56-57 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis, “Making Objects Speak at the Art Institute of Chicago: A New Publication and a Refurbished Arts of Africa Gallery,” in Tribal Art magazine (No. 99, Spring 2021), p. 106 (ill.).

Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, Trésors de l’Islam en Afrique: De Tomboctou à Zanzibar, Apr. 14–July 30, 2017.

Simon (d. 1999) and Miche (d. 2007) Escarré, Côte d’Ivoire, and La Baule, France, from the early 1950s (reportedly acquired in Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire); sold to Loed (d. 2018) and Mia Van Bussel, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Côte d’Ivoire, in 1958 or 1959; sold to Patrick Girard, Lyon, France, in late May or early June 1996 [before June 25, 1996]; sold to the Art Institute.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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