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This spectacular gold ring would once have
belonged to an Asante chieftain. Whilst clearly a
symbol of wealth and prosperity, it also had a
deeper, proverbial meaning to its original
audience. The Akan tribes had a long tradition of
imbuing objects with moral and social
significance, most famously the figurative
weights used in the gold trade. This example
depicts a bird, probably a hornbill, with its neck
caught in the mouth of a coiled snake. It
represents the qualities of perseverance and
patience (on the part of the snake). According to
the legend, the hornbill borrowed money from
the snake but refused to pay it back, believing
that his ability to fly would always give him the
advantage. Eventually drought and shrinking
water holes forced the bird to land, leading to its
capture.
The band of the ring is incised with diagonal
hatching and the body of the snake with
regularly spaced ovals. The bird rests on a small
platform, projecting from the snake, with large
raised circular eyes and a prominent crest. This
would have been just one part of the royal
regalia, worn with other gold rings, staffs,
sandals and jewellery. This glittering display has
impressed visitors to the region since the arrival
of the first European traders in the fifteenth
century. Gold ornaments were often melted down
and re-made as fashions changed or assets had
to be liquidised. The style of this ring points to a
date in the eighteenth or nineteenth century as
Asante jewellery became more ornate and in its
proverbial symbolism- more eloquent.
Ref: T. F. Garrard, 'Gold of Africa: Jewellery and
Ornaments from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali and
Senegal', (Munich, 1989)
P. McClusky, 'An Art of Persuasion: Regalia from
the Asante Kingdom', in Art From Africa,
(Seattle, 2002), pp.79-81.
- (RP.012)
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