1991.13.3

Collection type

Object

Description

Ceremonial sword, eben. Leaf-shaped blade with design of punched holes; carved ivory hilt; terminal brass ring; blade bound to hilt with brass wire.

Long description

Carried by the Oba and his chiefs on ceremonial occasions. When honouring his deceased father the Oba dances with an EBEN, touching it to the ground in front of his father's altar to link himself to the ancestors. Eben are traditionally made of iron by the blacksmiths' guilds. This example is a silver plated copy made and stamped by the British firm of Mappin & Webb. Inscribed 'MAPPIN & WEBB'S PRINCE'S PLATE RD 71 553'.

Geographical reference

Nigeria

Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria

Benin

Cultural groups

Edo

Person

Maker Mappin and Webb

Field collector George Le Clerc Egerton

Field collector 1897 Benin City "Punitive Expedition"

PRM source Dumas-Egerton Trust

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1897

Date collected

1897

Acquisition information

Loaned: 1991

Materials and processes

Material Brass Metal, Material Animal Ivory Tooth, Material Silver Metal, Process Inscribed, Process Bound, Process Plated, Process Carved

Dimensions

Length: max 1010 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1991.13.3 Other numbers: 71 553

Research and responses

The Dumas-Egerton Collection, of which this is part, was examined by Hermione Waterfield of Christie's in May 1984; see 'Part of the Nigerian Art Collected by Admiral Sir George Le Cler[c] Egerton on the Benin Expedition of 1897 on Deposit at Maidstone Museum' (copy in RDF). The entry for this object reads: 'A silver-plated copy of a Benin eben, with carved ivory plaques about the grip, part of ring handle covered with reptilian skin, by Mappin and Webb. 40 in. long.' [JC 23 1 2002]

Associated publications

The trader Cyril Punch had an eben made for Oba Ovonrramwen in silver plate by Mappin and Webb. It was apparently copied from an old example lent to Punch. This might be it. (See page 60 of Great Benin: Its Customs, Art and Horrors, by H. Ling Roth (Halifax: F. King & Sons, 1903); see also page 61 of 'A Benin Bronze Horseman at the Merseyside County Museum', by Peter Karpinski, in African Arts, Vol. XVII, no. 2 (1984), pp. 54-62, 88-9). [JC 3 7 1997] Reproduced in black and white as figure 21 on page 23 of Symbols of Kings: Benin Art at the Pitt Rivers Museum, by Linda Mowat (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1991). [JC 10 3 1997].

Search terms: Weapon, Ritual and Ceremonial, Trade, Writing, Sword, Ceremonial Object, Inscription