Weight
date: label: Date
content: 15th-early 18th century
name: label: Maker
content: Akan artist
notes: label: Label Text
content: Although often identified with the Asante, the most numerous and best known of the Akan peoples, weights for measuring gold dust were made and used throughout Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. For more than five centuries, from about 1400 to 1900, Akan smiths cast weights of immense diversity. Their small size made them portable and easy to trade. Each weight was cast individually in the lost-wax method. What resulted was a unique piece, but one that had to be a specific weight to function. The shape or figure of a weight did not correspond to a set unit of measure: a porcupine in one set could equal an antelope in another, or a geometric form in a third. For important transactions, gold dust was placed on one side of a small, handheld balance scale, a weight on the other. Each party to the dealing verified the amount of gold dust using his or her own weights.
label: Label Text
content: Visually, weights fall into two distinct categories: geometric and figurative. Stylistically they are divided into early (c. 1400-1700) and late (c. 1700-1900) periods. This object is an early period geometric weight, a rare ten-sided diamond form. Most early weights are geometric with notched or indented edges, incised surfaces, punch marks and inset copper plugs. Although geometric weights were still made during the late period, figurative weights increased in both number and variety. Generally, late-period figurative weights have added details and textures beyond the basic form that would identify the subject.
label: Description
content: Cast copper alloy geometric weight composed of ten sided diamond with point decorations.
label: Provenance
content: Unknown smith, Ghana; acquired under unknown circumstances by an anonymous mining engineer in Ghana, before 1900 [1]; given as a gift to Margaret Beatrice (Postlethwaite) Dean (1884-1968), San Francisco, ca. 1900 [2]; by inheritance to her son, Robert B. Dean (1914-?), Cincinnati, Ohio, by 1976; donated to the Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., 1976; ownership transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1979.
label: Provenance
content: [1] The mining engineer was likely an employee of Risdon Iron Works, San Francisco. Risdon Iron Works built a gold dredge for use in Ghana, about 60 miles inland from Accra. See: Noah W. Kirshenbaum, “The Giant Gold Diggers: California's Land-Going Fleet of Dredges,” Mining History Journal 7 (2000).
label: Provenance
content: [2] Daughter of Robert Hodgshon Postlethwaite (1862-1949), head of Risdon Iron Works.
label: Exhibition History
content: Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2017-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: male
label: Topic
content: Trade
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African Art Collection
label: Exhibition
content: Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts
label: On View
content: NMAfA, Second Level Gallery (2193)
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Robert B. Dean
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Object number
content: 76-51-4
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: 1.2 x 1.6 x 1.5 cm (1/2 x 5/8 x 9/16 in.)