Goldweight with a Geometric Design
Asante
18th/19th century
Medium
Copper alloy
Dimensions
0.7 × 2 × 2 cm (1/4 × 3/4 × 3/4 in.)
Classification
gold-weight
Department
Arts of Africa
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
54024
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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.