Trophy Head
Maker Unknown
Date: 19th century or earlier
Place Made: Ghana, West Africa
Materials & Techniques: Gold
Dimensions: Weight 0.17 kg
Accession Number: The Wallace Collection, OA1683
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This amazing gold head is from West Africa. Nobody knows exactly how old it is but it was brought to Britain over 100 years ago. It was part of the treasure of King Kofi Kakari of Asante in Ghana.
The head is made of pure gold. Gold is a soft metal and this piece was made by heating the gold so that it turned into a liquid, and then pouring the liquid into a mould. This process is called casting.
Once the main shape of the head was formed, smaller amounts of gold were heated and shaped into the eyes, nose, ears and lips which were then added to the head.
The gold of this trophy head has been damaged and you can see that the top has been crushed, the ears are missing, and there are marks across the surface.
Teachers' Information
This trophy head is from Coomassie, the gold-rich capital city of the Asante nation. A lot of Asante gold was taken by British soldiers after the 1873 war in that region. This piece was bought by Sir Richard Wallace at a charity auction. The proceeds of the auction went to the wives and families of soldiers killed or injured during that war.
Activities
1. Throughout history the lure of gold was so strong that men would leave their homes and families, live in tents and spend their days panning for gold in the hope that they would become rich over night. You could read or talk about the experiences of these men and ask the children to vote on whether the hardship was worth it for the small chance of finding gold.
2. Gold was found in South Africa at the end of the 19th century and 23% of the world’s gold at that time came from there. Your class could do a geographical survey into where the gold rushes were and how much was found at each site.