- Museum number
- Af1897,1224.3
- Title
- Series: Benin Ivory
- Description
-
Altar tusk; made of elephant ivory carved with human and animal figures in relief. Band of interlace patterning around base.
- Production date
- 18thC-19thC (?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 156.50 centimetres (inner curve: tip to base (approx))
-
Height: 176.70 centimetres (outer curve: tip to base (approx))
-
Width: 13.30 centimetres (base (approx))
-
Depth: 12 centimetres (base (approx))
- Curator's comments
- Read & Dalton 1899:
Elephant tusk of the same style as Af,1224.2. On the outer curve are eight figures, none of them Europeans; but on either side of the figure at the foot is a European holding a hoop-shaped object, perhaps a manilla. The other figures represent musicians, chiefs, and attendants, as on the foregoing examples, with the difference that one figure is entirely unclothed. The animals are the conventional cat-fish, the elephant's head with trunk ending in a human hand, a crocodile, and a large grotesque bird, like an ostrich. The point, as in the other tusks, represents a head of a chief.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1970-1973, London, Museum of Mankind, Divine Kingship in Africa
1993-1997, London, Museum of Mankind, Great Benin: a West African Kingdom
- Condition
- Read & Dalton 1899:
The ivory of this tusk is in much better state than is the case with the others [Af1897,1224.1-2], but like them it appears much worn by rubbing on the outer curve.
- Associated events
- Associated Event: British Expedition to Benin City Feb 1897
- Acquisition date
- 1897
- Acquisition notes
- During the British Expedition to Benin City (Edo) in 1897 objects made of brass, ivory, coral and wood were looted by British soldiers from the royal palace, its storerooms and compounds.
Some of these objects were sold or exchanged on the coast. However, many were brought to the UK where they were sold through private auction, donated to museums, or retained by soldiers of the expedition.
See Collection File: Af1897,1224.1-4.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1897,1224.3