This Akan gold weight depicts two birds perched on top of a trap structure. The weight is finely cast showing fine details of the birds feathers and the each of the looped structures of the trap. Attached to one of the loops is a small bundle-like bronze piece that would have acted as a counter weight.
Akan proverbs, depicted in the form of the weight, could provide a piece of advice, recall a debt, serve as a warning or as a token of friendship. A proverb relating to birds and traps is: 'The clever bird is easily trapped in the leaves at the edges'.
Cast brass weights, used by the Akan to measure gold dust - their main form of currency - between the late fourteenth century to the end of the nineteenth-century, are miniature marvels.
Ex Private Collection UK
Estimated Period: 19th Century
Length: 3.5 cm
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