Af,A154.46

EPF11247

6880-1 (William Webster numbers)~6808 (William Webster number)~6936-8 (William Webster numbers)~6942-4 (William Webster numbers)

King & Waterfield 2006: ~Webster 1898-9: Cat.21, fig.1-10

Benin Bronzes and Ivories (Series)

photographic print (black and white)~album

paper

photographic process

Photograph (black and white); mounted on card, part of a bound album. View of four staffs; one eben sword; two swords; two pipe-bowls; one powder keg. Photographic process.

Height: 24.00 cm (page)~Width: 27.40 cm (page)

Previous owner/ex-collection: William Downing Webster

1898-1899 (circa)

Photographed in: London

Associated with: Edo

Associated with: Benin City

Associated Event: British Expedition to Benin City - 1897

Inscription:~ Inscription details: inscription (front of mount; below photograph) in English~ Inscription quoted: 1.Bronze staff £25.0.0. sold to Gen Pitt Rivers. 2. Iron ceremonial sword £20.0.0. sold to Dresden Museum. 3. Bronze standard £35.0.0. sold to Gen Pitt Rivers. 4. Bronze sword £5.0.0.sold to Gen Pitt Rivers. 5. Bronze staff. £25.0.0. sold to Berlin Museum. 6. Bronze sword £5.0.0. sold to Gen Pitt Rivers. 7. Bronze pipe bowl £1.10.0. sold to Horniman Museum. 9. Powder keg of wood covered with hammered brass. £5.0.0. sold to Gen Pitt Rivers. 10. Bronze pipe bowl. £2.10.0. Leiden Museum Holland.~ Inscription note: Handwritten in black ink. Description of objects from the Kingdom of Benin, with indicative purchase prices and names of vendors.

This album contains photographs of objects from the Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria sold by the London-based dealer, William Downing Webster. Many of the photographs are annotated with information relating to the vendor/s and some include purchase prices. It is likely that the photographic series was compiled by Webster in the early 1900s. The objects depicted in this photograph were sold by William Webster as follows: 1. to the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in 1899. Accession number: III C 9954. 2. to Arthur Baessler in 1899. Donated by Baessler to the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony - Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden. Accession number: 16123. 3. to General Augustus Pitt Rivers by 1900. 4. to General Augustus Pitt Rivers by 1900. 5. to Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in 1899. Accession number: III C 9955. 6. to General Augustus Pitt Rivers by 1900. 7. to the Horniman Museum, London before 1913. 8. to Theodor Rautenstrauch by 1901. Donated by Rautenstrauch to the Rautenstracuh-Joest-Museum, Cologne in same year. Accession number: RJM 46. 9. to General Augustus Pitt Rivers by 1900. 10. to the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen and Wereldmuseum, Leiden in 1900. Accession number: RV-1243-25. This page of the album also includes photograph Af,A154.45.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Af-A154-46