Featured Bronze piece. Any ideas?

Hi folks,

Picked this up today at an estate sale full of Asian antiques. It didn't have a tag on it so I asked the guy how much and he said "how bout a dollar". I said "SOLD". He said "what is it?". I said I had no idea , and I really don't.
The inside is almost completely solid packed with a black granular material. Almost looked like old black powder. Whatever it is it is really packed and crystalized in there. I set my pocket knife beside it for a size comparison. Looks kind of like the African lost wax stuff , but nearly everything there was Chinese or Japanese.
Was a really cool sale. Thousands of items.
Anyway , if anybody has some ideas to help me understand this piece that would be great.
Thanks in advance for any and all help!!
Kevin.

 

looks like a large bead.....

 

african....



Ashanti?
Baule?
Ghana?

 

I was thinking that, too, but it looks huge for a bead and I imagine pretty heavy. Maybe meant to adorn something other than someone's neck?

 

@Pat P
Small hijack...welcome back

 

Thanks, Janet.

 

I think that we are on to something for sure. It looks a whole lot like those Camaroon beads. But that being said , this thing is pretty big. 3" across from hole to hole and weighs a pound.

 

Nice Xmas tree ornament!

 

Maybe a lamp piece? I've seen it done with glass/crystal, so bronze isn't impossible.

 

So, did you empty out the black 'stuff' and strike a match to a wee bit of it????? And if so, did it burn??? I was just thinking from your initial description maybe ..... gunpowder....but I guess maybe not.....

 

But.... how big is the pocket knife?

I agree with the others, West Africa. I always think Akan, of which the Ashanti are a sub-group. Handmade, lost wax technique. For someone with a strong neck and a big sense of status.

 

I thought about that later and for a lot of folks the knife was a very poor scale/size comparison choice by me. Sorry about that.
I did make a size mention of the piece a little later in the thread. It is 3" across from hole to hole and weighs a pound. 25 beads would be a 25lb necklace.

 

So, I did try a lighter on a small bit of the black stuff "outside of course". No flame or burn from it. I left the rest inside since it not hurting anything and would be a chore and messy to clean out. I just wanted to be sure before I stuck it up on the shelf to display.

 

The granular black stuff may be the remains of the casting process (lost wax and sand involved!)

 

Probably best to hang it on one of the lower limbs of the Xmas tree.

 

Just a thought. Perhaps not a bead but, given the size, part of an Ashante sword pommel:

http://www.hamillgallery.com/METALWORKS/MetalObjects2/AsanteSword02.html

 

Dba

 

??

 

Deleted by author. If there’s a way to completely delete an unwanted posting, I’m too lazy to look for it, so I invented Dba.