Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight hand-sewn With beautifully aged red white

With beautifully aged red white and blue paint

its character unfolding across 360 degrees

though it appears to have been a pretty contemporary one--though Lucy's version takes some license (in the placement of the label for Nigretia

as well as two solid decorative lines along its front

Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight hand-sewn With beautifully aged red whiteTiny, 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.