Object Details
- 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 a group of birds on a tree. It refers to a proverb about how one man's loss is another's gain, because if the tree dies, the birds will feast on the bugs in the rotten wood.
- Description
- Cast copper alloy figurative weight in the form of birds on a tree trunk on a stepped rectangular base.
- Provenance
- Bevill Bressler & Schulman, Newark, New Jersey, -- to 1975
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Akan artist
- Date
- 18th-late 19th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bevill, Mr. and Mrs. Alan Bresler and Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Schulman
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 4.4 x 1.9 x 1.9 cm (1 3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
