18th/19th Century Figurative Gold Weight Depicting a Mother and Baby. Akan Culture, Ghana

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This finely cast Akan gold weight depicts a mother, with a baby clinging to her back. Carrying a pot on her head, she reaches her arm up to support the vessel. Due to its original function as a counter-weight, parts of this piece are missing - most notably, the mother's other arm.

Produced by goldsmiths between the fifteenth and nineteenth-century, Akan gold weights were used to measure gold dust - however, they were also worn as charms to cure ailments, gifted with dowries of gold dust or sent as pertinent messages. Proverbs depicted in the form of the weight could provide a piece of advice, recall a debt, serve as a warning or token of friendship.

Estimated Period: 18th/19th Century

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Reference

National Museums Scotland

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