Abamphruwa (gold-dust box)

Asante-Akan artist

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 341

Akan merchants and family heads deployed an array of implements related to the handling of gold-dust currency. These included measuring spoons, scales, gold weights, and embellished boxes called abamphruwa. In a rare flourish, birds sculpted in miniature line the lids of these containers, which may have doubled as weights. Their presence suggests the Twi proverb, Anõma ne nua nè nea o ne no da, roughly translated as “birds of a feather flock together.”

Abamphruwa (gold-dust box), Asante-Akan artist, Brass, Asante

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