Catalogue card reads, in blue ink: "50.275 | Africa | Benin / Bronze bull's head in relief, part of a plaque. / Benin. / F.W. Green bequest."
In second hand, black ink: ["Benin" has been struck through in top right and above it has been added] "Nigeria"
Red circular sticker on bottom right of card.
Webster, W.D. (9101) Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnological Specimens. European and Eastern Arms and Armour. Prehistoric and Other Curiosities, Vol. 5, No. 29.
Illustrated on p. 52, fig, 119 as No.“119. (11704) Fragment of a bronze plaque representing a cow’s head, 4 ¾ by 4 ¾ inches. £0.15.0. 120.
In January 2017, Prof. Marcos Martinon-Torres and Agnese Benzonelli, UCL Institute of Archaeology, tested this idno using a portable XRF as part of a programme of base metal analysis of Benin material.
Analysis/1
Archaeology
Auction - Sale/0
Given by Frederick William Green, Honorary Keeper of Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1908–1949). The majority of 'bronze' items such as these in museum collections were collected on the 1897 Punitive Expeditionto Benin. This is likely to be the origin of this work but there is no documentation on Green's acquisition.
The Webster sale number suggests it was sold by Bicester dealer William Webster at some stage probably between 1898- 1901, but the number has not yet been connected to a specific auction.