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Title
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Set of Asante small balance scale, scoop, gold-weights and boxes for storing gold dust, 1880 - 1920
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Institution
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University Library, Cambridge
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Collection Title
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Royal Commonwealth Society Artefacts Collection
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Creator(s)
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Purchased from a Hausa trader by D.M. Lawson
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Description/Scope and Content
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Gold dust functioned as a universal medium of exchange in West Africa, measured on scales according to a standardised system of weights. The brass weights and boxes for storing gold dust were decorated with geometric and figurative designs. Figurative designs featured a wide range of animate and inanimate objects such as the drummer, crocodile, bird, catfish, antelope, cutlass, cartridge belt, drum and horns featured in the RCS set. The significance of the gold weights as an art form transcends their economic function, sometimes alluding to proverbs and folktales, and reflecting wider Asante spiritual beliefs and cultural practices.
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Date
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1880-1932
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Location
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Basement Archives, UL
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Identifier
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ORCS.4.05
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Language
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Objects
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Extent
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3 boxes
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Collection Type
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Special Collection - artefacts
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Level of Processing
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catalogued to item level (ArchiveSearch)
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Type of Materials/Format
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Metal objects (brass)
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Related Collections: Types of Materials
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Gold weights collections at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/
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Presevation/Conservation concerns
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fair condition - digitised images
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Provenance
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Purchased from a Hausa trader by D.M. Lawson while he worked as a telegraph engineer in the Gold Coast between 1926 and 1932, and later donated to the Royal Commonwealth Society.
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Copyright
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Out of copyright
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Donor Information
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Lawson, D.M.
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Notes
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ORCS.4.05a contains a hollow brass model of a hut, 110 mm in height; ORCS.4.05b contains 6 weights and boxes and the scoop; ORCS.4.05c contains 14 weights and boxes and the scales https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ORCS-00004-00005/1
