The Niger Bend

The tradition of small figures cast of brass for the purpose of weighing gold in Africa is well-established. Although we do have a wide variety of such genuine, old gold weights for sale, this is not one of those. This one was made exclusively for sale, a reproduction. In fact, this particular form, though very true to the lost wax brass casting technique always used to produce the real ones, would probably not have occurred among the wide variety of gold weights produced over the centuries in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Those representing heterosexual relations would have been more likely but even those would be a small part of the total that was ever made.

This fanciful gold weight is therefore not an original but was only made for the pleasure of the modern collector of African figurative art.

Since these are all individually handcast in the traditional technique, whereby the form is first fashioned by hand of wax then covered with a clay investment, each figure is different in at least a small way, sometimes in more remarkable ways.

This one measures 1 13/16 x 2 1/4″ (4.6 – 5.7 cm).