Weight
date: label: Date
content: 17th-early 18th century
name: label: Maker
content: Akan artist
notes: label: Label Text
content: 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.
label: Label Text
content: Some weights’ forms were selected just for their beauty or to display the owner’s status. Many, however, evoke Akan proverbs, whose meanings vary with time and place—more than one interpretation can apply. Hence water creatures were popular weights, with their associations of fluidity, flexibility, and movement between worlds.
label: Description
content: Cast copper alloy figurative weight.in the form of a flat fish with large dorsal fin and impressed dot pattern.
label: Provenance
content: Mr. and Mrs. Emil J. Arnold, New York, -- to 1975
label: Exhibition History
content: Currents: Water in African Art, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 2016-ongoing
label: Content Statement
content: As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
label: Image Requests
content: High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
place: label: Geography
content: Ghana
label: Geography
content: Côte d'Ivoire
title: label: Object Name
content: <I>abrammuo</I>
topic: label: Topic
content: fish
label: Topic
content: male
label: Topic
content: Trade
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African Art Collection
label: Exhibition
content: Currents: Water in African Art
label: On View
content: NMAfA, Third Level Corridor
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Emil J. Arnold in memory of her husband
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Object number
content: 75-3-91
objectType: label: Type
content: Sculpture
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Copper alloy
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D: 3.5 x 7.3 x 1 cm (1 3/8 x 2 7/8 x 3/8 in.)