1955.317

bronze

H: 20 1/4 in, W: 14 1/8 in

plaque

1550-1650

Benin

Nigeria

From the catalogue card: "One of the bronze relief plaques which decorated the wooden columns of the courtyards of the Royal Palace in Benin. The nail holes in the plaque are pulled through towards the back as they should have been when the Beninites ripped it off its column in 1691 during the Civil War in that city. This plaque along with many others was in the underground storerooms when the Dutch explorer Van Nyendall visited Benin in 1702. It was found by British Marines in 1847 when Benin was conquered, looted, and razed by the British. It was included in the British Admiralty sale of 1898 or 99 and went into a private collection from whence it was obtained by Carlebach."

Taken by (Sir Ralph Moor) from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897; sent to the British Foreign Service office collection in 1897 [Reed/Sir Ralph Moor No. 60]. Purchased from (Carlebach Gallery, New York) in 1955; Collection of Denver Art Museum.

Cole A+, Pictured on display at the British museum at the below link: www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1406619&partId=1&searchText=Benin+bronze+photographic+print&page=1, Pertinent information summarized from the object file: In 1897 the British Museum requested that some of the objects being reported in the press as having been found in Benin during the Punitive Expedition be sent home for study. The Foreign office agreed and Sir Ralph Moor duly sent back a shipment of plaques some time in March or April. In a later list, Read (Charles Hercules Read (later Sir) was the keeper of the department of British and Medieval Antiquities) noted 305 plaques that he was able to select from, although there appears to be others at the foreign office as Read mentions plaques in officials offices...[t]he 305 plaques were displayed for 3 months at the museum from September 1897 and a report appeared in The Times. The British Museum were able to keep around 200 of the original plaques...[t]he remainder of the plaques all bore the large white numbers such as is on yours, as did the museum's collection. They are Foreign Office numbers, we call them Read's numbers, Bon Lushan called them Sir Ralph Moor numbers. Read gained permission to handle the sale of the remainder and duly offered various plaques to museums around England and Europe, the results were listed on a document called "Fate of the Benin Bronzes" which uses Foreign office numbers."