zoomorphic figure sculpture in the form of a bird; chicken; rooster / cock; cock with elephant's head and trunk ending in a human hand holding a trefoil, between its feet on the stand; the armatures for the legs of the cock are iron rods - see photo on back of catalog card; Dimensions: H = 50.8 cm; 20"
Entry from p.34 "The Art of Benin - A Catalogue of an Exhibition of the A. W. F. Fuller and Chicago Natural History Museum Collections of Antiquities from Benin, Nigeria" by Philip J. C. Dark, 1962. The original bronze specimen is also the pictured on the cover of this catalog. CJP 1/2007
"Cocks: 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 (rattles) and wooden images of fowls" (Bradbury, 1957). Some carved wooden cocks are covered with beaten brass, e.g., 82.
Courtesy of: J. Balodimas. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/21f5b547-7766-4efe-8e02-e8d67a344038 (accessed on 26 Oct 2021)
Courtesy of: R. Gross, C. J. Philipp, J. W. Kennedy. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/689430f7-3b3f-4dba-aba7-842fe03fa63f (accessed on 13 Jan 2022)
Courtesy of: J. Miller. (c) Field Museum of Natural History. CC BY-NC 4.0. https://mm.fieldmuseum.org/8edc609d-f8fb-4973-af11-73925d42472b (accessed on 14 Jun 2021)