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Goldweight with a Geometric Pattern
Asante (Ghana; Coastal West Africa)
18th/19th century
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Classification
- Decorative Arts
- Dimensions
- Base: 2 × 3.2 × 3.9 cm (3/4 × 1 1/4 × 1 1/2 in.); Lid: 0.7 × 3.2 × 3.9 cm (1/4 × 1 1/4 × 1 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Ghana
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The relatively complex design of this gold weight consists of two comb-like elements attached to a pair spirals by a central stem. It is almost a perfect square in format. These weights were used to measure gold dust, the local currency in the Akan-speaking regions of southern Ghana and the Côte d’Ivoire between the 15th and the 20th centuries. Made of a copper alloy, the gold weights enabled merchants to carry out trade in towns of the West African Sahel and, prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the late 15th century, North Africa.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
