Accession Number
1997/1.484

Title
Gold-weight

Artist(s)
Akan

Artist Nationality
Akan (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1900-1985

Medium & Support
brass

Dimensions
9/16 in x 1/2 in x 7/16 in (1.4 cm x 1.3 cm x 1.1 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Dr. James and Vivian Curtis

Subject matter
Geometric gold-weight with a central diagonal line surrounded by a five-toothed comb-like motif along two sides. Gold-weights have long been used and produced by the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Many weights show patterns consisting of spirals, circles, waves, zigzag lines, bars, comb-shapes, bows, or crosses (cf. Sheales, African Goldweights, 2014). Most argue that the similarities between Akan gold-weights and their Roman and Islamic counterparts indicate that Akan-speaking peoples adapted weight forms from their North African trading partners for their own use in the context of the gold trade (cf. Garrard, Akan Weights and the Gold Trade, pp. 4-5). Other scholars maintain that the graphic patterns on Akan gold-weights represent a symbolic language of indigenous origin (Niangoran-Bouah, The Akan World of Gold Weights, Vol. 1, p. 221). Many of these geometric and cursive designs could have held metaphorical or proverbial knowledge for Akan-speaking peoples, but it is likely that the meanings have been lost (cf. Sheales, African Goldweights, 2014). 

Physical Description
Gold-weight in the shape of a square base with a central diagonal line, surrounded by a set of five raised bars along two sides. 

Primary Object Classification
Metalwork

Primary Object Type
goldweight

Collection Area
African

Rights
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Keywords
goldweights
measuring
miniature (size attribute)
weighing devices