Kasena Stone Armband, Ghana

A heavy dark ring with a bevelled inner edge and a patient, matte glow.

This armband is Kasena, from Northern Ghana, West Africa. It is granite. Armbands and bracelets of stone, metal and ivory have been worn across West Africa, where they may signal age, status or belonging to a group. Thick rounded ring in deep chocolate brown, wide at the base and slimmer at the top. The surface is dull and finely pitted, with a sloping inner face and a slightly uneven opening. It is 0.5 inches deep and 3.6 in diameter.

Plain, weighty and perfectly content to be so.