Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight Inuit craft Box measures 3 3/4" l

Box measures 3 3/4" l x 1 1/4" w x 1 1/16" t

with the bendy white-painted neck just hanging down and making a great line--but if stuck into something

No chips or cracks or other structural issues

This one belonged to a George Birkenheld

Chameleon? Antique Animal Shaped West African Ashanti Weight Inuit craft Box measures 3 3/4" lTiny, 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.