Craftsmanship of the Asante Empire
"Their stoves are built of swish (about three or four feet high) in a circular form, and are open about one fifth of the circumference; a hole is made through…
Location: Ghana
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They excel in pottery, as the pipes for the Museum will shew; they are rested on the ground when smoked; the clay is very fine, polished (after baking) by friction, and the grooves of the patterns filled up with chalk. They have also a black pottery which admits of a high polish.
The people of Dagwumba surpass the Ashantees in goldsmith's work, though the latter may be esteemed proficients in the art. The small articles for the Museum, a gold stool, sanko, bell, jaw bone, and drum, are not such neat specimens as I could wish; the man who made them having too much costly work on hand for the King, to pay our trifles his wonted attention; unfortunately too, he was committed to prison before they were quite finished; however, they will give an idea. I weighed out nineteen ackies and a half of gold dust for making these articles, one third of an ackie was lost in melting, and five was the charge of the goldsmith. We lost a beautiful silver pipe in the bustle.
Beeswax for making the model of the article wanted, is spun out on a smooth block of wood, by the side of a fire, on which stands a pot of water; a flat stick is dipped into this, with which the wax is made of a proper softness; it takes about a quarter of an hour to make enough for a ring. When the model is finished, it is enclosed in a composition of wet clay and charcoal, (which being closely pressed around it forms a mould,) dried in the sun, and having a small cup of the same materials attached to it, (to contain the gold for fusion,) communicating with the model by a small perforation. When the whole model is finished, and the gold carefully enclosed in the cup, it is put in a charcoal fire with the cup undermost.
When the gold is supposed to be fused, the cup is turned uppermost, that it may run into the place of the melted wax; when cool the clay is broken, and if the article is not perfect it goes through the whole process again. To give the gold its proper colour, they put a layer of finely ground red ochre, (which they call Inchuma,) all over it, and immerge it in boiling water mixed with the same substance and a little salt; after it has boiled half an hour, it is taken out and thoroughly cleansed from any clay that may adhere to it.
Their bellows are imitations of ours, but the sheep skin they use being tied to the wood with leather thongs, the wind escapes through the crevices, therefore when much gold is on the fire they are obliged to use two or three pair at the same time. Their anvils are generally a large stone, or a piece of iron placed on the ground.
Their stoves are built of swish (about three or four feet high) in a circular form, and are open about one fifth of the circumference; a hole is made through the closed part level with the ground, for the nozzle of the bellows. Their weights are very neat brass casts of almost every animal, fruit, or vegetable known in the country. The King's scales, blow pan, boxes, and weights, and even the longs which hold the cinder to light his pipe, were neatly made of the purest gold that could be manufactured.
Their blacksmith's work is performed with the same sort of forge as the above, but they have no idea of making iron from ore, as their interior neighbours do. Their swords are generally perforated in patterns like fish trowels; frequently they make two blades springing parallel from one handle, which evince very fine workmanship. The needles and castanets will only give some idea of their progress. The iron stone is of a dark red colour, spotted with gray, and intermixed with what had all the appearance of lava, they cut bullets out of it for the army, when lead is scarce. I have brought some arrows of native iron. They have no idea of making a lock like the people of Houssa and Marrowa.
They tan or dress leather in Ashantee, but they do this, and dye it, in a very superior manner in Houssa and Dagwumba; see the sandals and cushion in the British Museum, the former varied and apparently stitched; doubting that there could be such stitching, I undid a part, and discovered that they perforated the surface, and then stuck in the fine shreds of leather. The curious will observe, that die patterns of the stool cushion are all produced by paring the surface. They make their soldiers belts and pouches out of elephant or pig skin, ornamented with red shells. (See drawing. No. 7.)
Of their carpenter's work the stool is a fair specimen, being carved out of a solid piece of a wood called zesso, white, soft, and bearing a high polish; it is first soaked in water. They sell such a stool for about three shillings, in Accra or Fantee it would fetch twenty. The umbrella is even more curious, the bird is cut almost equal to turning, and the whole is so supple that it may be turned inside out. This, only a child's umbrella, is a model of the large canopies I have described in the procession; I gave a piece of cloth value twenty shillings for it. The sanko or guitar is also neatly made, and the chasteness and Etruscan character of the carving is very surprising. The surface of the wood is first charred in the fire, and then carved deep enough to disclose the original white in the stripes or lines of the patterns.
Numbers of workmen are employed in breaking, rounding, and boring the snail shells, as big as a turkey's egg generally, and sometimes as large as a conch. They are first broken into numerous pieces, then chipped round, the size of a sleeve button, and afterwards bored with a bow and iron style fixed in a piece of wood. Lastly they are strung, and extended in rows on a log of wood, and rubbed with a soft and bluish gray stone and water, until they become perfectly round.
Their pineapple thread is very strong, and is made from the fineness of a hair to the thickness of whip cord, it bleaches to a beautiful whiteness, and would answer for sewing any strong material, but, when muslin is stitched with it, it is liable to be cut from the harshness. The women frequently join their cloths, and ornament their handkerchiefs with a zigzag pattern, worked with unravelled silks of different colours. The fetish case is a specimen of their needle work, in the manner of chain stitch.
Bowdich, Thomas Edward. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. J. Murray, 1819.
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