Bronze hip pendant mask of a human face with a headdress on, a neck ornament and six vertical lines on the forehead to represent tribal markings.

Collection type: Object
Description: Bronze hip pendant mask of a human face with a headdress on, a neck ornament and six vertical lines on the forehead to represent tribal markings.
Geographical reference: Nigeria
Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria; Benin
Cultural groups: Edo
Person: Field collector Harold Moseley Douglas; PRM source Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford; PRM source James Coffin Harle
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1897
Date collected: circa 1897
Acquisition information: Loaned: 1983
Materials and processes: Material Bronze Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions: Height: max 190 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1983.25.3 Other numbers: 1978.2626
Research and responses: Examined by Benin specialist Barbara Blackmun in July 1991. According to Blackmun, these masks probably all represent women, and if so, that they were given by the Queen Mother to her chiefs. [LMM 7 1991 ?; JC 9 7 2000]
Masks like this were symbols of leadership in Benin. They were worn by the Oba and the Edo chiefs and also sent to the Oba's vassal leaders as emblems of their authority. While the Edo chiefs wore these masks attached to their belts, often on the left hip, vassal leaders wore them around their necks. [presumably LMM 3 1991 ?]
Associated publications: This object was featured in the Museum's on-line fact sheet ‘African Metalworking’ produced during the DCF-funded 'What's Upstairs?' project, 2004–2006. [BR 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 8/11/2005] Apparently not listed in An Illustrated Catalogue of Benin Art, by Philip J. C. Dark (Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1982). [JC 1995]

Search terms: Mask, Ornament, Insignia, Religion, Status, Status Object

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