Akan Ashanti Gold Weight African Bronze 19th c. \"Lost Wax\" Musician w horn (E)

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Akan Ashanti Gold Weight African Bronze 19th c. \"Lost Wax\" Musician w horn (E):
$44.95

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Akan Ashanti Gold Weight African Bronze 19th c. \"Lost Wax\" Musician w horn (E)

19th century Akan/Ashanti gold weight, used to weigh gold and gold dust on the \"Gold Coast\" of West Africa. From the Ashanti kingdom, in the area now known as Ghana.

From the 15th century to the dawn of the 20th century, a set of goldweights would given to an Ashanti man when he married,sohe could start out in business. Every weight is unique, made from bronze using the \"lost wax\" method. Weights can take a wide variety of shapes: animals, everyday objects such as chairs, people engaged in everyday tasks, tableaus illustrating Ashanti parables or stories, even erotica (sorry, I don\'t have any of those).

Similar pieces can be found in museums throughout the world. The British Museum in London, for example, has a particularly fine collection.

This weight represents a man playing an instrument which looks like part French horn, part bagpipe. (At least that\'s what it looksliketo me.) He is particularly expressive: looking towards the skies, he appears to be in a trance with his music.

Please look carefully at the photos as they are a key part ofthe description.
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MORE INFO (from theHuntarian Museum in Glasgow)\"The weights were used to measure out specific quantities of gold and gold dust, the local currency, which was mined and panned in great quantities within the kingdom. The weights were usually made using the \'lost wax method\', in which the goldsmith made a beeswax model of the weight and covered it with thin layers of clay, brushed on with a feather. The clay was then baked, which caused the wax to melt and run out. The clay was then used as a mould for the bronze: both were encased in an aubergine-shaped clay mould with the original clay mould at the top and the bronze sitting on the bottom, and then put into the furnace. When the bronze was molten, the smith turned the mould upside down, so the bronze ran into the clay mould below. The mould was later destroyed to reach the bronze weight. The earliest known period of weight production began in approximately 1400, however during the 18th and 19th centuries manufacture increased as the Ashanti\'s economy grew, mainly due to war, conquest, booty and trade. This explains why the majority of the Hunterian Museum\'s collection of Ashanti weights are from this period, rather than the earlier, post-contact periods. In 1894, the colonial administration in the region banned the use of gold dust as currency, and in 1896 outlawed the use and making of weights.\"

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Akan Ashanti Gold Weight African Bronze 19th c. \"Lost Wax\" Musician w horn (E):
$44.95