Goldweight
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
- Download image
Natural gold resources generated wealth and influence for the Asante kingdom in Ghana, West Africa. From around 1600 small weights (mbrammoo) in brass and bronze were used to weigh gold dust, which was used for all commercial transactions. Anyone involved in trade and commerce owned, or had access to, a set of weights and scales.
This brass weight is in the form of a triangle divided by a line running through it. All four lines appear to be bound with wire or fibre. The three points of the triangle are decorated on the outside with three circular spirals.
Geometric shapes and designs predominated amongst the early weights but more naturalistic representations of court regalia began to appear in the 17th century. By the 18th and 19th centuries the weights reflected a wide range of human and animal figures, often in scenarios designed to represent popular Asante proverbs.
Physical description
A cast brass goldweight in the form of a pierced triangle with a line running through it. All four lines appear to be bound with wire or fibre.
Place of Origin
Ghana (made)
Date
late 19th century (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Cast brass
Dimensions
Length: 4.3 cm, Width: 5.6 cm, Depth: 0.25 cm
Object history note
Purchased from Ian Auld (Antiquities & Ethnographica), 1 Gateway Arcade, Camden Passage, London, N1.
Historical significance: Goldweights were not simply functional items. They symbolised the meeting of communities for trade. Many carried messages of peace and goodwill. Geometric shapes and entwined plants reminiscent of Islamic art, probably influenced by long-standing links with Muslim North Africa, predominated among the early weights.
Historical context note
Natural gold resources generated wealth and influence for the Asante kingdom in Ghana, West Africa. From around 1600 small weights (mbrammoo) in brass and bronze were used to weigh gold dust, which was used for all commercial transactions. Anyone involved in trade and commerce owned, or had access to, a set of weights and scales.
This brass weight is in the form of a triangle divided by a line running through it. All four lines appear to be bound with wire or fibre. The three points of the triangle are decorated on the outside with three circular spirals.
The gold trade provided opportunities for artistic expression. Antedating the establishment of the Asante kingdom by about two centuries, the gold trade relied on a standardized weight system derived from North African, Dutch, and Portuguese precedents. To measure the gold dust, Akan merchants used diminutive brass weights called abramo. The form these weights took changed over time: the earliest weights were geometric, reflecting the influence of North African Islam, but by the seventeenth century naturalistic representations of court regalia were more prevalent. This shift may reflect the Asante kingdom's growing regulatory role in the gold trade. References to Akan proverbs in the form of complex images of animals and people appeared somewhat later, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Descriptive line
Asante goldweight in form of pierced triangle, late 19th century, Ghana.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Patterson, Angus, "Asante Goldweights", The Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, Vol. 15, June 2007, pp. 38-39 (for comparisons)
Materials
Brass
Techniques
Casting; Lost-wax process
Subjects depicted
Triangle
Categories
Metalwork; Africa; Black History
Collection code
MET
