Three zoomorphic goldweights ·  Ghana, Akan · ID: 3039419

Description

brass, casts from nature: crab claw (4 cm), lizard (7 cm) and beetle (4,5 cm), min. dam., slight traces of corrosion;
a beetle, already perfectly formed by nature, replaced a wax model. After the intense heat had turned the beetle into dust, its ashes would be shaken and blown away through the channel left by the melted sprue. Since the beetle, with its variety of species, is the most common example this technique has become referred to as the “lost beetle” process.

Comparing literature

Phillips, Tom, African Goldweights, London 2010, p. 39