Baule Gold Weight Storage Box

Gold needs weighing. The weights, it turned out, needed a house.

This gold weight storage box is Baule, from Ivory Coast, 20th century, cast in brass. In the gold-trading societies of this part of West Africa, gold dust served as currency, and its small brass weights and tools were kept in lidded boxes. The Baule share much of this tradition with their Akan neighbors. Two spiders fill the front panels in relief, their bodies tight spirals. A tortoise and a lizard-like creature ride the lid. Stacked ring feet lift the box. Eight inches wide and five and a half high.

Spiders on the front, a tortoise on the lid. Nobody was rushing.