Goldweight with a Geometric Design

Arts of Africa

18th/19th century

Asante or related Akan-speaking peoples
Ghana
Coastal West Africa

This small, square gold weight consists of a pattern of four concentric semicircles on its face. It is probable that this weight was made sometime in the 18th or 19th centuries in light of its ornate “wax-thread” design, which was common during that period. Brass and copper weights were used for five centuries—between about 1400 and 1900—as a means to weigh gold mined by the Akan and traded first westward and then across the Sahara to North Africa, and later with the Portuguese and Dutch.

Status: Currently Off View
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 × 2 × 2 cm (1/4 × 3/4 × 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Britt Family Collection
Reference Number: 1978.906
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/54024/manifest.json

Phillips, Tom (Ed.) Africa: The Art of a Continent. Munich: Prestel, 1995. [see p. 442-446 for discussion and related examples]

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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