Asante Gold: pendant
- Gallery: Room 47
- Maker: R & S Garrard & Co
- Made in: Asante Region (pendant); London (England) (dish)
- Date: 1850-1873 (pendant); 1874 (dish)
- Object type: pendant, dish
- Materials: gold; silver
- Museum number: Af1973,07.1-2
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is an impressive gold pendant, set into a silver-gilt dish. The pendant is star-shaped and features a central, raised conical boss surrounded by intricate repoussé patterns, including concentric circles and sixteen lobes. The overall design is symmetrical and filled with fine scrolls and foliage.
You can notice how the outer rim has twenty pointed projections with decorative triangles, some incised with lines. It was once worn by Asante soul priests or the Asantehene’s attendants.
The dish, made in London in 1874 by R & S Garrard & Co., was created to display this pendant. It was part of a larger indemnity gold payment from the Asante King to British forces in 1874. An inscription on the dish describes the gold as part of this payment, though the details slightly misdate the event.
This piece is a fascinating blend of Asante craftsmanship and European design influences, showing how cultural elements were adapted and reimagined across time and place.
See it in person
Asante Gold: pendant is on display in Room 47 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
