Skip Navigation

Gold-weight (abrammuo): leopard

Arts of Africa

Gold was extremely important in the economic and political life of the Akan kingdoms of southern Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Until the mid-nineteenth century, gold dust was the primary form of currency in the region. In order to measure precise amounts of gold, an elaborate system of weights, usually made of cast brass, developed by the seventeenth century. Gold weights took many forms: simple geometric shapes; animals, such as leopards or birds; objects, such as chairs or swords; and human figures. The figures, animals, and objects are often associated with proverbs. The sankofa bird, with head turned backward, represents the proverb “One must turn to the past to move forward.”
CULTURE Akan
MEDIUM Brass
  • Place Made: Ghana
  • DATES 19th or 20th century
    DIMENSIONS 1 11/16 x 3 3/4 in. (4.3 x 9.5 cm) mount: 5 1/2 × 2 1/2 × 2 in. (14 × 6.4 × 5.1 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Arts of Africa
    ACCESSION NUMBER 67.25.14
    CREDIT LINE Bequest of Laura L. Barnes
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Solid male leopard weight with rabbit in mouth: leopard's undulating body ends in arched tail, raised spirals throughout. Rabbit's legs curve toward leopard's body, eyes and ears raised.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Akan. Gold-weight (abrammuo): leopard, 19th or 20th century. Brass, 1 11/16 x 3 3/4 in. (4.3 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Laura L. Barnes, 67.25.14. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.25.14_PS6.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 67.25.14_PS6.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.