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.
Catalogue card reads, in blue ink: "50.277 | Africa | Nigeria / Bronze bell of square section. / Benin. / F.W. Green bequest."
Red circular sticker on bottom right of card.
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. This object was tested twice and the results are as follows: 1) Cu: 77.84%; Zn: 16.36%; Sn: 1.62%; Pb: 3.22%. 2) Cu: 75.58%; Zn: 17.51%; Sn: 1.77%; Pb: 4.29%. It was noted that bells vary in composition and thought not to be very standardised, bar a few exceptions the are dated 1800+. This object is Riederer alloy H1 and probably 19th century.