Goldweight with geometric pattern / Artist Unknown, African, Akan-Speaking Peoples, Ghana or Côte d'Ivoire

About this Item

Record Details

Accession Number

1997/1.487

Title

Goldweight with geometric pattern

Artist

Artist Unknown, African, Akan-Speaking Peoples, Ghana or Côte d'Ivoire

Artist Nationality

Ghanaian

Medium and Support

brass

Object Creation Date

1900-1985

Object Creation Place

Africa (continent)

Akan (historical region)

Creation Place 1

Africa (continent)

Creation Place 2

Akan (historical region)

Credit Line

Gift of Dr. James and Vivian Curtis

Dimensions

3.5 cm x 3.5 cm x 1.1 cm (1 3/8 in. x 1 3/8 in. x 7/16 in.)

Century

20th century

Primary Object Classification

Metalwork

Primary Object Type

goldweight

Physical Description

Square goldweight or lid of a gold dust box, hollow in the back, with a geometric pattern with 2 spirals in the center and a row of edged teeth along 2 of the sides.

Subject Matter

This object might be either a gold weight or the lid of a gold dust box; in either case, it was an integral part of the gold trade in which Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire engaged since at least the 15th century. Patterns consisting of spirals, circles, waves, zigzag lines, bars, edged teeth, bows, or crosses are characteristic not just of weights, but also of other parts of the gold weighing toolkit (called "dja" or "futuo"), such as the lids of the boxes used to contain gold dust.

The hollowed-out base of this example might indicate that this object was in fact used as a lid for a gold dust box. According to some informants, gold dust boxes were sometimes used to divide different amounts of gold dust without the intervention of scales and weights, because the owner would know the amount contained in his various boxes.

Alternatively, the object under consideration might be a gold weight in the strict sense of the term, featuring a hollowed-out base. We know that Akan weights were carefully adjusted by removing or adding metal to achieve greater accuracy. Obviously, weights with a hollow base are lighter than those with a solid base (which may show the same geometric pattern.) Incidentally, this also shows that the representation of a particular graphic pattern on a particular weight does not correlate with its value or measurement.

Primary Keywords

geometric motifs

ghana (nation)

Secondary Keywords

africa (continent)

descriptors

design elements

geographic and political locations

goldweights

motifs

Rights

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Technical Details

Collection

University of Michigan Museum of Art

Image Size

3888 x 2592

File Size

242 KB

Record

1997/1.487

Link to this Item

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1997-sl-1.487/1997_1.487.jpg content_copy

Related Links

IIIF

Manifest

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1997-SL-1.487:1997_1.487.JPG content_copy