Accession Number
1997/1.486

Title
Gold-weight

Artist(s)
Akan

Artist Nationality
Akan (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
1900-1985

Medium & Support
brass

Dimensions
2 1/8 in x 1/2 in x 3/16 in (5.4 cm x 1.2 cm x 0.4 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Dr. James and Vivian Curtis

Subject matter
Gold-weight in the shape of a rectangular base decorated with rectangles and a wavy line along two sides. 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. Following this interpretation, the gold-weight shown here shows the ideogram for the Fire of Heaven, that is, lightning and the potentially harmful rays of the sun. This would be an appropriate symbol on a gold-weight, considering that gold is often considered as fire (Niangoran-Bouah, The Akan World of Gold Weights, Vol. 1, p. 248).  

Physical Description
Gold-weight in the shape of a rectangular base with five sunken rectangles along the center surrounded by a raised undulating line along the two long edges. 

Primary Object Classification
Metalwork

Primary Object Type
goldweight

Collection Area
African

Rights
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Keywords
goldweights
measuring
miniature (size attribute)
weighing devices