Art Institute of Chicago

Goldweight in the Form of a Geometric Shape

Asante or related Akan-speaking peoples

Date

18th/19th century

Medium

Copper alloy

Culture

Ghana

Department

Arts of Africa

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Brass-cast weights like this one were produced using the lost-wax technique and used for economic transactions that involved gold. The Akan and Akan-related people traded gold with Islamized merchants from the West African interior and North Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans. Akan artists employed both abstract symbols and figural motifs in these miniature brass castings. It is generally accepted that the designs were intended to communicate a personal or collective meaning. This weight takes an abstract form of a central circle with projecting coiled elements on each axis. One side appears to have a few protuberances missing, perhaps the result of an attempt to balance the scale during an economic trade.

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