Goldweight with a Geometric Pattern

Arts of Africa

18th/19th century

Asante or related Akan-speaking peoples
Ghana
Coastal West Africa

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.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Asante
Title: Goldweight with a Geometric Pattern
Place: Ghana (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1700–1899
Medium: Copper alloy
Dimensions: 2 × 3.5 × 3.8 cm (3/4 × 1 3/8 × 1 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman
Reference Number: 2007.586
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/193088/manifest.json

Muriel Kallis Newman (died 2008), Chicago, Ill., by 1980; given to the Art Institute, 2007.

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