Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1941.2.119

Bell.

On display

1941.2.119

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Bell.
Geographical reference
Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria
Benin
Cultural groups
Edo
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source Irene Marguerite Beasley
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1935
Date collected
By 1935 probably 1897
Acquisition information
Donated: 1941
Materials and processes
Material Bronze Metal, Material Brass Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast, Process Decorated
Dimensions
Length x Width 290 x 150 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1941.2.119 Other numbers: 31.5.35
Research and responses

This bell was purchased by Harry Geoffrey Beasley for the Cranmore Ethnological Museum at a Stevens Auction Rooms sale on 21 May 1935. Although the catalogue card states that the object was purchased by Beasley at Stevens Auction Rooms on 31 May 1935, this appears rather to be the date that the object was entered into Beasley's Ledger. In the auction catalogue for the Stevens sale on 21 May, lot 219 is listed as ‘A Benin bronze bell, cast brass, square, height 12in, from the Palace of the King of Benin, West Africa’. [JMC 14/04/2023]

Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Bell