Goldweight with a Geometric Design

18th-19th century

Asante or related Akan-speaking peoples
Ghana
Coastal West Africa

Brass-cast gold weights were used to measure gold dust, the local currency in the Akan-speaking regions of southern Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire between the 15th and 20th centuries. Made of a copper alloy, the gold weights enabled merchants to trade with towns in the Sahel region and North Africa and later with the Portuguese and the Dutch.

The designs of gold weights are incredibly diverse, from simple geometries to designs referencing local proverbs. This rectangular gold weight features two “comb” motifs facing opposite directions, separated by a generous gap with deeply incised lines running through the middle of the weight. The use of the “comb” design suggests that this piece was made sometime between 1700 and 1900.

Status: On View, Gallery 289
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Asante
Title: Goldweight with a Geometric Design
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: 0.7 × 1.5 × 2.3 cm (1/4 × 9/16 × 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Britt Family Collection
Reference Number: 1978.912
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/54042/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Critical Fabulation, Oct. 10, 2025-Jan. 4, 2026, no cat.

George Stoecklin (died 1997), Golfe-Juan, France, by 1978 [see correspondence with Jean Britt in curatorial file]; sold to Raymond E. Britt, Jr. (died 2004), Britt Family Collection, Chicago, Ill., 1978; given to the Art Institute, 1978.

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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.

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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.

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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.