H x W x D: 6.7 x 4.4 x 1.9 cm (2 5/8 x 1 3/4 x 3/4 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Ghana
Côte d'Ivoire
Date:
18th-late 19th century
Label Text:
Although often identified with the Asante, the most numerous and best known of the Akan peoples, weights for measuring gold dust were made and used throughout Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. For more than five centuries, from about 1400 to 1900, Akan smiths cast weights of immense diversity. Their small size made them portable and easy to trade. Each weight was cast individually in the lost-wax method. What resulted was a unique piece, but one that had to be a specific weight to function. The shape or figure of a weight did not correspond to a set unit of measure: a porcupine in one set could equal an antelope in another, or a geometric form in a third. For important transactions, gold dust was placed on one side of a small, handheld balance scale, a weight on the other. Each party to the dealing verified the amount of gold dust using his or her own weights.
Visually, weights fall into two distinct categories: geometric and figurative. Stylistically they are divided into early (c. 1400-1700) and late (c. 1700-1900) periods. During the late period, figurative weights increased in both number and variety, although geometric weights were still made. Generally, late-period figurative weights have added details and textures beyond the basic form that would identify the subject. This object is a late-period figurative weight in the form of the frame for a shield. It recalls the proverb "If the shield is worn the frame remains."
Description:
Cast copper alloy figurative weight in the form of an openwork wicker shield frame with zigzag design along the frame and central inverted triangles.
Provenance:
Bevill Bressler & Schulman, Newark, New Jersey, -- to 1975
Exhibition History:
BIG/small, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 17-July 23, 2006
Content Statement:
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