Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed nowBy subscribing, you are agreeing to the privacy policy. Unsubscribe anytime.
Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Ethnographical / Twenty antique geometric gold weights
TWENTY ANTIQUE GEOMETRIC GOLD WEIGHTS. Original, unique, special, antique, good patina, detailed. AKAN ASHANTI ASANTE bronze geometric gold weights, well tribally used. From Ghana, Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, West Africa. Total weight is 366 grams. The first, top ten weights, see first photos, weigh: 72.9 grams, a KING WEIGHT, with weight adjustment by reduction of bronze, see underside, UNIQUE, 42.4 grams, with teeth, 34.6 grams, with teeth, 30.7 grams, beautiful design, water waves, see engraved bottom, four-point cross, unique, 27.5 grams, with teeth, dark bronze, 27.5 grams, with lead ballast, variant on sun symbol or swastika, 17.3 grams, with teeth and water waves, 15.9 grams, variant on crocodile or turtle design, 13.1 grams, two buns, 13.0 grams, four buns. Some weights have symbolic meaning. See last photos with sheet explaining. Made with the lost form method, lost was, cire perdue, lost wax method. Sometimes with visible remnants of the casting channel. Different colors of African bronze. Wear and signs of use in accordance with tribal use when weighing gold and gold dust, and in trade. With lead ballast, and weight reduction. Proof that these weights were tribally well used in trade. See photos, which are part of the description. As counterweight for small scales or balances. Weights from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, thus long before 1900, when the use of gold weights as currency and means of payment was prohibited and replaced by coinage. Not tourist junk from the 20th century. For size assessment: compare with coins. Carefully packed, and insured shipping with track and trace code via PostNL. Can also be picked up in Leiden, Netherlands.
Estimate:£127.16
To the auctionView all items fromCatawikiorEthnographical
Estimate:
£127.16
OCT 17 | 10:00 PM
Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed now£7.6
