Replica Weight Item Number: K2.97 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
Replica cast gold weight. Two bronze hornbills on a wood base. Both birds have rounded eyes. Both birds face toward each other with their beaks overlapping. Both birds are connected at the bottom across with a pedestal that is double-grooved in the middle and two-stepped at either side. One bird's tail is higher than the other.
History Of Use
Akan gold weights were used to weigh powdered gold (gold dust), the standard currency of the Asante Empire from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries. Locally referred to as abrammuo (singular mrammuo), these weights were usually made of a brass alloy. The figures were cast using the lost-wax technique, and range in form from simple geometric designs (thought to be the earliest forms) to figurative forms such as animals and humans or items such as swords and Adinkra symbols.
Cultural Context
Reproduction of an Akan/Asante gold weight out of cast bronze.
Narrative
Purchased (along with K2.94, K2.95 and K2.96) as a reproduction, from a Vancouver store that specialized in art reproductions. The label on the base of K2.96 says "Authentic copyrighted reproduction made from the original at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Ill." They were acquired by MOA curator Audrey Hawthorn, who valued the educational potential of items, even if they were reproductions. But as commercially produced 'copyrighted reproductions' the pieces also represent a contemporary coloniality, in that the individual authorship of an Asante artist has been replaced with an American museum as the proprietor of the design.
Item History
- Made in Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Owned by Museum Art before February 1969
- Received from Leon & Thea Koerner Foundation (Funding source) and Museum Art (Seller) during February 1969
What
- Name
- Replica Weight
- Identification Number
- K2.97
- Type of Item
- weight
- Material
- bronze metal and wood
- Manufacturing Technique
- cast
- Overall
- height 4.6 cm, width 5.0 cm, depth 2.5 cm
Who
- Culture
- Akan and Asante
- Previous Owner
- Museum Art
- Received from
- Leon & Thea Koerner Foundation (Funding source) and Museum Art (Seller)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
When
- Ownership Date
- before February 1969
- Acquisition Date
- during February 1969
Other
- Item Classes
- metalwork
- Condition
- good
- Current Location
- Case 101
- Accession Number
- 0145/0004