H x W x D: 1.3 x 4.4 x 4.4 cm (1/2 x 1 3/4 x 1 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. Weights may act as display pieces implying wealth in both the size of individual weights and the number owned.
Some figurative weights evoke well-known Akan proverbs, and more than one proverb may apply. This is perhaps particularly true of animal weights. This weight depicting crossed crocodiles recalls the proverb "The crossed crocodiles have one belly but when eating they fight." The meaning conveyed is that there is unity in diversity, like in a family. It can also be a mockery of greediness--since in the end, it all goes to the same place, the stomach, so why bother tasting.
Description:
Cast copper alloy figurative weight in the form of crossed crocodiles with curving tails. One leg is missing.
Provenance:
Bevill Bressler & Schulman, Newark, New Jersey, -- to 1975
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