Figure
Akan peoples, Ghana
96-6-2, museum purchase

The intact, black encrusted surface of this wooden figure suggests that it was well protected in a deity shrine for a period of time. Artists in the region were known to have applied material to create such encrustation. Doran H. Ross and Raphael X. Reichart describe traditional regional black coatings or tatwia, which are made by soaking tree roots. They also mention that modern carvings are sometimes painted with automobile enamel or soot and "carpenter's glue" to produce an aged appearance artificially.¹

Examined under a microscope, the sample of the encrustation revealed an amorphous nature and lacked the features one would expect to find in black pigments such as charcoal and bone black. Even though it appeared to be a dyed or artificially colored material, we were unable to identify the black colorant.

Fourier transfer infrared (FTIR) analysis detected a proteinaceous material, such as fish or hide glue, and indicated the presence of a natural ester resin--probably a triterpenoid resin such as mastic--and a polyvinyl acetate, most likely from a previous consolidation treatment. Pyridine soluble and hydrolyzed fractions yielded gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy data that was not helpful in identifying the black colorant.

Though the encrustation may contain hide glue, it is not the mixture of soot and "carpenter's glue", often used by forgers, that Ross and Reichart describe. Analysis showed it to be an unusual mixture of media and colorant. In this case, the absence of definitive findings is important. If we had found automobile enamel or even a soot pigment, we would have questioned the object's authenticity.

¹ Doran H. Ross and Raphael X. Reichart, "Modern Antiquities: A Study of a Kumase Workshop," in Akan Transformations: Problems in Ghanaian Art History, ed. Doran H. Ross and Timothy F. Garrard (Los Angeles, 1983), 84.

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