Unknown smith, Ghana; acquired under unknown circumstances by an anonymous mining engineer in Ghana, before 1900 [1]; given as a gift to Margaret Beatrice (Postlethwaite) Dean (1884-1968), San Francisco, ca. 1900 [2]; by inheritance to her son, Robert B. Dean (1914-?), Cincinnati, Ohio, by 1976; donated to the Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., 1976; ownership transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1979.
[1] The mining engineer was likely an employee of Risdon Iron Works, San Francisco. Risdon Iron Works built a gold dredge for use in Ghana, about 60 miles inland from Accra. See: Noah W. Kirshenbaum, “The Giant Gold Diggers: California's Land-Going Fleet of Dredges,” Mining History Journal 7 (2000).
[2] Daughter of Robert Hodgshon Postlethwaite (1862-1949), head of Risdon Iron Works.
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