11043. Copper spots. Casting defects on the right wing and comb. Tail feather broken off during casting. Large opening in the back. Interior: Ventral part massively filled. 3 toes & spurs. Braided band motif around base edges. "Bronze cocks are used to decorate the shrines of queen-mothers. In some households particularly those of people of high rank, there is an altar to the mothers of the living and past household heads, decorated with uxurhe .. and wooden images of fowls. (Bradbury) "Two bronze female heads, a cock and an altar piece are for the cult of the king's mothers (i.e. his own mother and those of the preceding kings, from whom he descends in the direct male line.). These pieces are all of the Late Period, the finest and earliest being the cock, which may date from the reign of oba Eresonyen (about 1750)." Fagg, 20 PUBL Kat. 1975: Abb. 6 Rachewiltz 1960: Abb. 21 LIT Dark 1982: ill. 3 und 5 (Leiden) Gall 1962: Abb. 6, 59 Dark 1962: The Art of Benin Fagg 197=: Divine Kingship in Africa. London. pl. 13, p. 20