Ornament or Pendant with Antelope

In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, regions that acquired great wealth from the mining and trading of gold, chiefs and other people of status displayed their standing by wearing a profusion of gold ornaments, even attaching such objects to umbrellas and swords. Although many of these ornaments are abstract geometric shapes, some represent human faces or animals, including those shown here depicting a sawfish or antelope. Such works were made using the lost-wax casting method, in which a clay mold was made around a modeled wax form. The mold was then heated and the wax poured out. Finally, molten gold was poured into the mold to create a form in the shape of the original wax model.