Nine gold dust boxes "abampruwa" ·  Ghana, Akan · ID: 3036274

Description

brass, sheet brass, with patina, in various forms and sizes, with geometrical decor, one box with two birds on top, one with a stylized lizard in relief, additionally two lids;
gold itself was generally kept, wound up in twists of cloth, inside small boxes cast in the same style as the weights themselves. The boxes had to be well fitting with flush lids for their valuable contents. They were fabricated with such precision that they have the air of being deliberately made to resemble weights in order to divert attention from their possible contents.

The object Nine gold dust boxes “abampruwa” with the object ID 3036274 was last part of the auction 76th tribal art auction at March 22, 2014 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 225 achieved a sales price of EUR 400.

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Comparing literature

Phillips, Tom, African Goldweights, London 2010, p. 20