Cast bronze serpent broken from a larger plaque.

Collection type: Object
Description: Cast bronze serpent broken from a larger plaque.
Geographical reference: Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria; Benin City
Cultural groups: Edo
Person: Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms
Date / Period: Date made: Circa 1500-1700
Date collected: By 1899 probably 1897
Acquisition information: Purchased: 12/1899
Materials and processes: Material Brass Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions: Height 215 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1899.86.12
Research and responses: This plaque was purchased for the Pitt Rivers Museum on 4th December 1899 at Stevens Auction Rooms. The sale was advertised as "The Great Curio Sale, including a valuable collection of Benin relics and bronzes..." ("Sales by Auction", Daily Telegraph Saturday 2nd December 1899). [JMC 10/03/2023]
Associated publications: Listed as no B8/67 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.] 1899.86.12 [Wide/Narr./Frag.] Wide [H] 21.5 [W] [blank]'. [JC 18 10 2018]

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