Name: Asante spider
What it is: A gold sword ornament
Where it is from: Kumasi, Ghana
When it was made: Late 19th century
The Asante Empire (also known as the Ashanti Empire) ruled the Gold Coast of West Africa in what is now Ghana for two centuries (1701 to 1901). One of the most powerful symbols of the Asante rulers was the ceremonial sword, which was decorated with a cast gold ornament often shaped like an animal. This one-of-a-kind spider ornament belonged to one of the last Asante kings, Kwaku Dua II.The Asante spider ornament was made from a gold-copper-silver alloy, according to the Dallas Museum of Art, which purchased the item from a Texas family in 2014. The spider measures 4 by 2.9 inches (10.2 by 7.3 centimeters) and may have once been affixed to an Asante ceremonial sword. It was likely taken out of Ghana in the late 19th century, along with hundreds of other royal gold objects, during one of the Anglo-Ashanti wars as Britain expanded its control over the Gold Coast.In 1884, Sir Samuel Rowe, the British governor of the Gold Coast, was visited by Bosommuru, the chief spokesman of the Asante royal court in Kumasi, the imperial capital. During the state visit, Bosommuru gave Rowe the gold spider as a mark of friendship from Kwaku Dua II. According to Roslyn Walker, a curator at the Dallas Museum of Art who researched the history of the spider, Bosommuru said the spider was a symbol of wisdom and only the king was allowed to wear the spider emblem on his sword.
