Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight hand-sewn as well as two solid

as well as two solid decorative lines along its front

a few small nails on the top perimeter are missing

though it appears to have been a pretty contemporary one--though Lucy's version takes some license (in the placement of the label for Nigretia

Framed: 19 1/4" x 15 1/8"

where the Knowles Steam Pump factory operated in the last quarter of the 1800s

Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight hand-sewn as well as two solidTiny, but really wonderful, I believe this is a Akan (now Ghana) West African Ashnati weigh, used to for measuring out gold and gold dust, usually for trade. These weights, frequently figural and often in the shape of animals, were typically made of brass, as I believe this one is, cast using the lost wax method. I am tempted to say, with its large eye and coiled tail, that this one is meant to represent a chameleon, but I am not completely certain.