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Source Description
The wealth and power of the Asante kingdom was derived primarily from its massive gold resources. Since at least 1600, small weights in brass and bronze were used to weight gold dust and nuggets. The royal court had the most elaborate store of weights, while commoners often had about a dozen. Their imagery falls into two broad cateogries: geometric and representational. The latter often refers to proverbs, which used judiciously, marked a wise person.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
144631
label
Gold Weight (abrammuo): Geometric
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
144631
contentType
object
title
Gold Weight (abrammuo): Geometric
description
The wealth and power of the Asante kingdom was derived primarily from its massive gold resources. Since at least 1600, small weights in brass and bronze were used to weight gold dust and nuggets. The royal court had the most elaborate store of weights, while commoners often had about a dozen. Their imagery falls into two broad cateogries: geometric and representational. The latter often refers to proverbs, which used judiciously, marked a wise person.
date
1800s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q85890700
genreSpecific
Tools and Equipment
imageCount
1
source
import
cul
Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante goldsmith
accession
1969.265
Source extras
tec
Copper alloy
tombstone
Gold Weight (abrammuo): Geometric, 1800s. Africa, West Africa, Ghana, Asante goldsmith. Copper alloy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Georges D. Rodrigues, 1969.265
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
Geometric weights like this are the earliest form of these small, functional objects.
citations
citation
Sims, Lowery Stokes. <em>The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34, no. 37
creditline
Gift of Georges D. Rodrigues
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:25:49.171000
sourceId
144631
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Copper alloy
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
0a76ef9b619c33c2