Ashanti Linguist's Staff Depicting Bird and Cannon

Speckled bird spreads one wing above a pair of fat bottles.

This linguist’s staff depicting bird and cannon is Ashanti, from Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is carved & painted wood. Each staff finial was made as a visual form of one or more Ashanti proverbs, and the staffs were carved from wood, mostly painted, with some accented in gold leaf. Large bird covered in neat pressed dimples with long feathers carved down the wing, standing on spindly legs. Below it lie two squat, narrow-necked vessels on a chunky block, with white paint rubbed thin and cracked. It is 10.5 inches wide, 6 deep and 83 high.

All that texture, and not a single feather out of place.