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.
- Some figurative weights evoke well-known Akan proverbs, and more than one proverb may apply. This is particularly true of animal weights. This weight depicting a porcupine (kotoko) relates to a proverb of the Anyi of Côte d'Ivoire in which the porcupine displays greater responsibility than his dependent relative, the hedgehog. The porcupine is cast in the role of the senior, powerful character because of its quills. Its many quills were also taken as a symbol of the Asante kingdom and its large, well-equipped army, as demonstrated in the sayings: "Asante kotoko kill thousands and thousands more will come," an expression relating to the size and courage of the army; and "Who dares to attack the porcupine, which has so many spikes?"
- This particular porcupine has lost its legs, either through use or because they were removed to adjust its weight.
- Description
- Cast copper alloy figurative weight in the form of a porcupine with flat depictions of quills and a small projecting tail.
- Provenance
- Bevill Bressler & Schulman, Newark, -- 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 Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks.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: 2.2 x 4.1 x 2.2 cm (7/8 x 1 5/8 x 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
