Ashanti Gold Box with Bird & Snake Finial

Today, a lidded pot with looped handles, a ringed pedestal and a bird standing guard.

This gold box with bird and snake finial is Ashanti, from Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is bronze. The Ashanti of Ghana are famed for casting small objects in brass and bronze by the lost-wax method, including lidded containers once used to hold gold dust. Viewed whole, a rounded dark metal vessel with a textured, woven-looking body and zigzag lines. Two openwork handles of twisted curls flank it, and a small long-beaked bird perches on the lid. A pedestal of linked open rings supports the whole piece. It is 5.5 inches wide, 3.63 deep and 6.75 high.

A bird on a lid, taking its post very seriously.