Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight Inuit craft Unused backs

Unused backs

This one belonged to a George Birkenheld

to my sensibilities

This wonderful little Richard Rohac cat shaped corkscrew

but I can't make them out

Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight Inuit craft Unused backsTiny, but really wonderful, I believe this is a Akan (now Ghana) West African Ashnati weigh, used to for measuring out gold and gold dust, usually for trade. These weights, frequently figural and often in the shape of animals, were typically made of brass, as I believe this one is, cast using the lost wax method. I am tempted to say, with its large eye and coiled tail, that this one is meant to represent a chameleon, but I am not completely certain.