Institutional metadata
Bibliography
Kaplan 1991: p. 208 [image published]~Kaplan 1991: pp 207-212~Anderson and Aronson 2017: p.164, pl.7
Object Name/s
photographic print
Technique/s
photographic process
Description (full)
Photograph (black and white); portrait of Oba Ovonramwen seated in a wicker chair with three soldiers, carrying bayonets, standing beside and behind him. The Oba wears a velvet gown; his bare feet are shackled together with chains. The soldiers wear knee-length trousers, long-sleeved shirts, caps with tassels, and belts; bare feet. Soldiers at right proper and centre wear medals.
Albumen print.
Dimension/s
Length: 20.82 cm~Width: 14.00 cm
Subject/s
prisoner ~soldier ~king/queen
Previous Owner
Previous owner/ex-collection: Arthur Henry Prest
Producer/s
Photographed by: Jonathan A Green
Prod. Place/s
Made in: Nigeria (coast)
Assoc. Name/s
Associated with: Oba Ovonramwen, King of Benin
Assoc. Ethnic Name/s
Associated with: Edo
Assoc. Place/s
Associated with: Benin City
Inscription/s
Inscription:~ Inscription details: annotation~ Inscription quoted: Album Title: "1st BENIN. WARRI. & SAPELE. 2nd NEW CALABAR. BONNY. OPOBO & QUA COUNTRY." [manuscript note on album paper].
Original Description: "King of Benin" [manuscript note on album paper]; "J. A. Green, Artist Photographer Bonny, Opobo, &c. &c" [stamp on back of print].
Curator's Comment/s
Photograph taken by Nigerian photographer J. A Green on board the S. S. Ivy, a British Government vessel, under the command of Captain Herbert Child. Oba Ovonramwen was exiled and sent to Old Calabar in eastern Nigeria in September 1897. The soldiers in this photograph are British-trained members of the Niger Coast Protectorate force. By 1905 Green's portrait of the exiled king appeared as a hand-painted, coloured colotype on a postcard. ~Photographs in the collections Af,A46 and Af,A47 were originally contained in a single album containing 176 photographs.
URL
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Af-A47-70