This finely cast Akan brass gold weight, in the form of a crab claw, has been 'cast from life' by an Akan goldsmith. Directly cast from the natural form of a crab claw, this gold weight is a miniature marvel. The gold weight displays an astonishing intricacy of casting, showing the fine details of the claw from the traces of its tendons to the points of its pincers.
Akan gold weights cast from nature - replicating the forms of flora and fauna from beetles to seeds - were produced from the mid-eighteenth-century. In the words of Tom Phillips, the category of Akan gold weights that were directly cast from natural forms - from beetles to seeds - is material testimony of Akan responses to 'the formal richness that nature presents'.
Estimated Period: Mid-18th Century
Ex Private Collection Seward Kennedy, London
Length: 4cm
References
National Museums Scotland, Goldweights from Ghana
Tom Phillips, 'African Goldweights: Miniature Sculptures from Ghana', p.42.
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