H x W x D: 4.8 x 6.1 x 0.7 cm (1 7/8 x 2 3/8 x 1/4 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Ghana
Côte d'Ivoire
Date:
18th-late 19th century
Label Text:
Although often identified with Akan peoples living in south-central Ghana, weights for measuring gold dust were used and traded throughout all of present-day Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. For more than five centuries, smiths cast weights from wax models or directly from the actual creatures. The resulting objects are immensely diverse in form while set to exact measurement standards.
Some weights’ forms were selected just for their beauty or to display the owner’s status. Many, however, evoke Akan proverbs, whose meanings vary with time and place—more than one interpretation can apply. Hence water creatures were popular weights, with their associations of fluidity, flexibility, and movement between worlds.
The fish depicted here has rarely been described in the literature as an elephantfish or Mormyrid, a fish that lives in muddy water and delivers a mild electric charge. Some types have long protruding lips.
Description:
Cast copper alloy figurative weight in the form of a fish.
Provenance:
Emil J. Arnold, New York, -- to 1968
Exhibition History:
Currents: Water in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 2016-ongoing
Content Statement:
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