Art Institute of Chicago
Goldweight with a Geometric Design
Asante or related Akan-speaking peoplesLinkedCulture matchlcp-0fe307805012
- Date
- 18th/19th century
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Culture
- Ghana
- Department
- Arts of Africa
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 54024
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
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.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of the Britt Family Collection
- Provenance
- 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.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300411641
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