Acquisition list in Wellcome archives describes object (listed by R number, 59124): "Ditto" (previous entries: "Bell, cast brass, with loop handle. Always seen on the Ancestral (ERO) altars, and rung at the beginning of any ceremony. (See "Antique Works of Art of Benin" Pitt Rivers)"
summary of curatorial notes archival research thus far summer 2021notes
The Wellcome collection acquired directly from H. N. Nevins, who was a colonial administrator (district officer) in Nigeria.
Acquisition list in Wellcome archives describes object (listed by R number, 59124): "Ditto" (previous entries: "Bell, cast brass, with loop handle. Always seen on the Ancestral (ERO) altars, and rung at the beginning of any ceremony. (See "Antique Works of Art of Benin" Pitt Rivers)"
Dan Hicks suggests that Hugh Nevins may have been present in Benin City in 1897 as a photographer (Brutish Museums, 12)
A December 11, 1934 letter from H. Nevins to A. D. Lacaille at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum states “the collection I believe might be of some interest to your museum, as you already have some collection which I made some years ago from Benin City.” We do not know when Nevins acquired these objects from Benin City, nor under what circumstances. The possibility that he may have taken part in the looting of Benin City is why these objects remain on the list of possibly looted objects.
1927: Purchase? Gift? from H. N. Nevins to Sir Wellcome
1965 Gift of the Wellcome Trust to Fowler Museum (then Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology)