CC0 · no rights reserved
Weight
From the collection of National Museum of African Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Although often identified with Akan peoples living in south-central Ghana, weights for measuring gold dust were used and traded throughout all of present-day Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. For more than five centuries, smiths cast weights from wax models. The form and simple dot decoration identify this weight as dating to the 17th to early 18th century . All weights are immensely diverse in form while set to exact measurement standards.
National Museum of African Art’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineWeight. 17th-early 18th century. Akan artist. National Museum of African Art, Gift of Mrs. Emil J. Arnold in memory of her husband. CC0.
