This fine museum quality royal Asipim antique chair measures 31 inches tall by 16 1/2 inches wide with a depth of 19 1/2 inches and weighs 19 pounds 12 ounces. Good overall antique condition but with a lot of surface wear from tribal use which includes a very very heavy surface patina and rust, a few missing metal tacks and some missing metal caps. Asipim chairs are seen in Asante royal courts as every Akan Chief owns one or more of them. These chairs they are normally constructed out of wood with a hide seat and there simplistic design is based after 17th or 18th century English chairs known as Farthingale, Upholsterer's chair, or Embroiderers' chair. Asipim chairs have now come to be identified with Asante chieftaincy becoming symbols of social status and rank in which even minor chiefs will have a number of asipim chairs and more prominent chiefs will have many more.
Reflecting Asante expectations of their rulers to be firm and authoritative, the chair takes its name, asipim which means I stand firm. Asipim chairs are normally decorated with brass tacks and caps, turned finials, worked brass sheets which are incised, worked in repousse' or stamped. The turned brass finials called ntuatire are attached to the tops of the chairs and represent abstracted claws of an eagle. These finials were made in Europe and traded in the region. The item "Antique Royal African Ashanti Asipim Akan Chief Throne Chair From Ghana, Africa" is in sale since Monday, April 20, 2020. This item is in the category "Antiques\Ethnographic\African\Sculptures & Statues". The seller is "mountainamma" and is located in Williams, Oregon. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Panama, Jamaica, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Viet nam, Uruguay.