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Pitt Rivers Museum

1901.53.4

Pellet bell.

On display


1901.53.4

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Pellet bell.
Geographical reference
Benin
Cultural groups
Edo
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source George Fabian Lawrence
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1901
Date collected
By 1901 probably 1897
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1901
Materials and processes
Material Bronze Metal, Process Cast
Dimensions
Length: max 50 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1901.53.4
Research and responses

This object is part of a set of bell ornaments purchased from George Fabian Lawrence in May 1900. Lawrence was an antiquities dealer who ran a shop in Wandsworth, London, through which many objects taken from Benin City in 1897 passed. The set had previously been bought by Lawrence at Stevens Auction Rooms on 12th February 1901. This sale had been advertised as "a magnificent collection of BENIN CURIOS, consisting of armlets, bells, heads, carved boxes and stools, bronze Ju-Ju's ceremonial iron swords, ivory carvings, keys, weapons…” (“Sales by Auction”, The Telegraph, Saturday 9th February 1901). [JMC 14/04/2023]

Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Rattle, Bell