Cameroonian Snake-Form Currency, Based

Wealth, in nineteenth-century Cameroon, did not always sit in a purse. Sometimes it was wound into a spiral and kept.

This one takes the form of a snake. A single length of dark copper rod coils into an open spiral and climbs to about thirty-eight inches, loosening as it rises. At the top, a small hooked head curls outward. The metal has a deep brown-black patina, with subtle shifts in tone. It stands on a square base.

Copper was currency here, and currency took recognizable shapes. Light it from the side. The shadow does the second half of the drawing.