An Ashanti bronze gold dust container with a spoon, also known as Kuduo,from Kumasi collected in Accra, Ghana. Slightly oxidized patina; signs of ritual use and age. Among the Ashanti people of Ghana, bronze and brass vessels known as kuduo played an important role in the storage of gold dust, ritual items, and personal valuables. These cast containers were typically owned by individuals of high status, such as chiefs, priests, and members of the royal court. Their form and material reflected the wealth, social position, and spiritual responsibilities of their owners. Kuduo were cast using the lost-wax technique, a process allowing for detailed surface designs and intricate forms. The resulting containers varied in size and complexity but typically included a base, a rounded body, and a domed lid, often topped with figural or geometric finials. Many were adorned with incised motifs or applied figures representing animals, warriors, or symbolic scenes. The use of brass and bronze signaled permanence and value, while the gold dust stored within served as both currency and ritual offering. Functionally, kuduo served both economic and ritual purposes. They stored gold dust used in daily transactions, but they also housed sacred items such as beads, talismans, or ancestral relics. Kuduo often appeared in funerary or commemorative contexts, particularly among the elite. Some were buried with the deceased or kept at ancestral shrines, linking the container’s material wealth with the spiritual world. In ritual contexts, kuduo could be used to make offerings or to pour libations, further enhancing their symbolic role as containers of both physical and metaphysical value. In terms of craftsmanship, kuduo production required high skill. The precision with which many older examples were cast—thin walls, fine relief work, and symmetrical designs—attests to a well-developed tradition of metalworking in the region. Earlier examples, dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, tend to show greater refinement compared to later pieces, which were sometimes produced more hastily for colonial collectors or the art market. Kuduo are part of a broader Asante visual and ritual system in which gold, brass, and bronze represent divine favor, ancestral power, and kingly authority. Their study offers insight into the interconnected roles of wealth, religion, and craftsmanship in Ashanti society. References British Museum collection notes on Asante kuduo vessels Michael Backman Ltd., object catalogue, “Asante Kuduo” Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Gold in Asante Courtly Arts” Penn Museum, “The Asante Gold Weights” Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, object descriptions of brass vessels Doran H. Ross, The Arts of Ghana, Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, 1977. MAZ03387 Length: 9 cm / 8 cm Weight: 90 g / 10 g