Af,B113.46

EPF7940

FO.115 (Foreign Office number)~Af,A60.46 (previously numbered as, in error)

von Luschan 1919: Vol.II, Pl.28A

photographic print (black and white (sepia))

paper

photographic process

Photograph (black and white/sepia); image of brass relief plaque (Ama) from Benin City, Nigeria. Single figure with eben held aloft in right hand. Sword on left side. River leaf background design. Photographic process.

Height: 13.50 cm~Width: 7.80 cm

Photographed by: The British Museum

1897 (late)

Photographed in: British Museum

Associated with: Edo

Associated with: Royal Palace

Inscription:~ Inscription details: annotation (reverse of photograph) in English~ Inscription quoted: £6~ Inscription note: Handwritten in pencil. Sale price for plaque in 1898.

During the British expedition to Benin City (Edo) in 1897 objects made of brass, ivory, coral, and wood were looted from the royal palace, its storerooms, and compounds. Some of these objects subsequently passed as official 'spoils of war' to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Among this loot were 304 brass relief plaques that were lent to the British Museum and displayed in the Assyrian Saloon in September 1897. Subsequently, the Museum petitioned successfully for the acquisition of 203 of these plaques that were donated to the Museum by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and were accessioned into the collection in January 1898. A further 11 plaques were added to the original list and of these remaining 112 plaques, 14 were sold to UK museums, 50 were sold to German museums, 39 were sold to a private dealer, Miss Eva Cutter, 8 were retained by the Foreign Office and 1 was unrecorded. The Museum managed these sales on behalf of the Foreign Office. The photographs in this series were produced at this time to send out to prospective vendors. The FO (Foreign Office) numbers assigned at this time were painted onto the plaques and are sometimes mistakenly attributed as 'Read & Dalton' numbers (referring to the 1899 publication: Antiquities from Benin in the British Museum by Charles Read and Ormonde Dalton). See File: AOA/Benin/Foreign Office plaques: external (includes former PicDoc.50). By jhudson 9 Dec 2021~The original plaque depicted in this photograph was initially returned to the Foreign Office in 1898 for private sale to one of its staff. Subsequently in private collection of Miss M. Spicer until 1970. Purchased by Charles Ratton for £4,000 at Sotheby's, London on 14 July 1970, lot 159. By 1973 in private collection of L. S. München, Germany. See also: Af,B113. 20, 25, 29, 30, 69, 88 and 96. By jhudson 12 Apr 2023

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Af-B113-45