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1908.65.1

Brass plaque with relief figure of conventionalized leopard skin.

1908.65.1

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Brass plaque with relief figure of conventionalized leopard skin.
Geographical reference
Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria
Cultural groups
Edo
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
Other owner William Downing Webster
PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms
Date / Period
Date made: Circa 1500-1700
Date collected
By 1901 probably 1897
Acquisition information
Purchased: 09/1908
Materials and processes
Material Brass Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions
Height 430 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1908.65.1 Other numbers: 11655
Research and responses

This plaque was purchased for the Pitt Rivers Museum at a Stevens Auction Rooms sale in 1908. It had previously been in the possession of antiquities dealer William Downing Webster, and has been matched to a photograph in Webster Catalogue No. 29 (May 1901), listed as lot 94 (11655), ‘bronze plaque representing one leopard’. The lot is listed in a section of objects described collectively as "from Benin City, West Africa, taken at the fall of the City in February, 1897, by the British Punitive Expedition, under the command of Admiral Rawson". [JMC 14/04/2023]

According to the stock book of dealer William Downing Webster, this plaque (11655), was purchased by him from Stevens Auction Rooms on 12 March 1901. [JMC 20/01/2024]

Associated publications
Object: Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens Photographic Reference, Main author: William Downing Webster, Page: 289, Page illustrated: 280, Catalogue number: 94 (11655), Notes: Listed as lot 94 (11655) in Webster Catalogue No. 29 (May 1901): "[Bronze plaque representing] one leopard, 17 by 11 3/4 inches..£7.0s.0d."
Listed as no B8/66 on p. 2.1.32 in An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art, by Philip J. C. Dark (Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1982). [JC 1995] Listed on page 227 of 'Annex 4: List of plaques by institution' in The Benin Plaques: A 16th Century Imperial Monument (Routledge Research in Art History), by Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch (London: Routledge, 2018): '[V/P] V [Institution or Collection] Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford [Acc. No.] 1908.65.1 [Wide/Narr./Frag.] Wide [H] 43.0 [W] [blank]'. [JC 18 10 2018]

Search terms: Figure, Animal Figure, Plaque

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