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This old engraving shows a selection of Akan objects drawn by Jean Barbot around 1680. Of particular interest are the ornaments, which include large, ornate discs and beads strung in necklaces. To an eye familiar with Akan work and that of the Asante, whose state was founded between 1699 and 1701, these are characteristic forms showing the continuity of Akan and Asante aesthetic, although until recently all actual examples of early ornaments were missing because they had entered the gold trade and been melted down for metal value in Europe.
Pictured left: Contemporary Engraving of a Selection of Akan Objects After Drawings by Jean Barbot, Around 1680
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European crowns have been popular items in the regalia of Asante leaders at least since the late nineteenth century. Prototype images were available on an enormous variety of small imported metal objects, including badges, buttons and coins, as well as all sorts of printed material. Since the Asante and other Akan-speaking peoples were in territory under British administration, British prototypes were the norm.
Here a leader's crown was carved from pieces of fine-grained light-weight wood carefully fitted together. It is a faithful copy of the British Imperial crown, but the finial has been changed to a chameleon - an image of local relevance since it is the symbol of the deliberate but sure action appropriate for a ruler. This crown has been blackened, perhaps indicating use as a shrine object for a dead ruler.
Pictured left: Asante Crown, Ghana, Blackened Wood Crown with Chameleon Finial, length: 8"height: 9"width: 8"
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Large cast or sheet gold discs akrafokonmu ("soul-priest's discs") are worn as breastplates by priests in charge of purification ceremonies for a ruler's soul, bearers of certain state swords, royal messengers and other court functionaries. Discs usually have a center boss, projecting tubes for the passage of a white cord, and small hemispherical rim decorations alternating with the cord tubes, as does this 5.5 inch diameter repousse sheet gold example that was probably made before 1950. It features designs of ferns (aya) symbolizing fearlessness, cowrie shells denoting wealth and fertility, and grubs of the palm beetle, an edible delicacy. All of these motifs are positive symbols expressing hope for peaceful and prosperous times after the last Anglo-Asante War of 1900. This disc is undoubtedly by the same hand as two pieces in the Barbier-Mueller Collection of Geneva, Switzerland, illustrated by T.F. Garrard in Gold of Africa, Munich, Prestel, 1989, Plate 21, p. 166, no. 5 (cat. 67, p. 225) and no. 6 (cat. 68, p. 225).
Discs of all sizes, ranging from beads a half-inch in diameter to pectorals over six inches across have always been the most popular Akan and Asante ornament form. They are mentioned by early European gold traders on the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) and appear later in drawings done by Jean Barbot, a French trader on the Gold Coast around 1680, where they clearly indicate that Akan and later Asante style has persisted for over three hundred years.
Pictured above: Asante Disc, Ghana, Akrafokonmu, Repousse sheet gold & solder
