"The discourse was interrupted by the entrance of a troop of
eunuchs, bearing on their heads various articles ... which were passed
in review before the gazing multitude. These were a number of
ornaments, in molten gold, such as small plates, circlets, twists,
etc., beside some large specimens of rock gold ... two fine camel's
hair carpets ... nine large pieces of silk ... a long gold pipe,
neatly and tastefully decorated with gold wire, the bowl being cast in the
solid, and rudely sculptured; a massive breast plate cast pure, of the
same metal, divided upon the outer surface into compartments, and coarsely
moulded into a sort of filigrane work; a gold elephant's tail, composed
of a thick bunch of wire ... besides a variety of the finest cotton
cloths, striped and ornamented with silk in the fashions of the country"
(Dupuis 1824, 173-4, describing presents intended
for the King of England).
The vast gold fields of Africa have produced not only great wealth,
but have generated trade and art
works. In Ashanti (present-day
Ghana), a set of scales, and of brass weights for
measuring out gold-dust, the local currency,
was
a treasured item for everyone, and their neighbours, and the vast
quantities of gold mined and panned within the Asante kingdom were used for trading
with outsiders, for making regalia
and personal adornment, and as an
internal currency (McLeod 1981, 122). Not for
nothing was this area called the Gold Coast. It has been suggested
that the average collection of weights was about
forty - hence the large quantities (several hundreds of thousands) which
survive. The very process of handling gold also required an extensive
paraphernalia,
from scales to boxes (in metal and leather), spoons and cloth.
Although
weights have probably been made for several centuries, several hundreds
of thousands survive from the 18th and 19th centuries, until the
colonial administration, in an attempt to exercise closer control
on commerce, banned their use in 1896, having already outlawed the
use of gold-dust as currency in 1894. Since Sir Garnet Wolseley sacked
Kumasi in 1874, causing disastrous effects on trade and on the complexion
of the Ashanti state, it is unlikely that many weights were made after
this date.
The brass (largely from a vigourous trade in European imports,
as early as the later 15th century), was cast using the
lost-wax method - the best way of preserving
fine modelling and detail in the finished product, but in no way
suited to "production-line" methods.
