"This is an Ashanti gold weight, about an inch high. Originally from Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Each gold merchant had a set of weights like this to use in his trading.
They represent ordinary objects and activities, and some illustrate African proverbs.
This one is a man holding a bird in one hand, but in the other is it a pipe, or a knife?
It has been in my family for years, and we think my father brought it back from Egypt after his time in Palestine, during World War I."
