Physical description/0description Catalogue card for E 1902.106: 'Five pieces of '?' bronze '/copper' ring money, well cast penannular rings of round or oval section with expanding horseshoe shaped ends.'
Physical description/1description K. Sutton: 'Traces of old bronze disease and grey/white accretions present' (17/08/2001).
Physical description/2description Manilla (currency ring): penannular 'ring money' of bronze/copper, with expanding horseshoe shaped ends.
Physical description/3description Accession register for E 1902.106: 'Five pieces of bronze ring money; well-cast penannular rings of round or oval section with expanding horse-shoe shaped ends.'
d_Description Namedescription Manilla (currency ring): penannular 'ring money' of bronze/copper, with expanding horseshoe shaped ends.
Africa; West Africa; [Kingdom of Benin]; Nigeria; Edo State; Benin City; Oba’s Palace
Benin Expedition[collector]; Webster, William Downing [vendor]; Stevens Auction Room [vendor]; Bevan, Anthony Ashley (Prof.) [monetary donor]
Amendments - updates/0notes 'Edo' is both a language and cultural group but the catalogue is presumed to have been using the term 'Edo as a cultural group. The term 'Benin' has been removed from the cultural group field.
Today Benin City is the capital of Edo State and so 'Edo State' has been used in the place field.
Amendments - updates/1notes K. Sutton: 'Another currency ring found, although it is marked E 1902.102, the Accessions Register states that this IDNO belongs to a larger and more ornate currency ring. The ring labelled E 1902.102 is also marked 7350, this follows the above sequence of numbers and the object is similar to the others of this IDNO so it is possible that this currency ring belongs with E 1902.106' (17/08/2001).
Amendments - updates/2notes Catalogue card for E 1902.106: [Added in pencil] 'I found 9 pieces altogether which have sequential (though not accession) numbers on them. They were tied together with a piece of string, but not with the one piece that had an accession number on it. Therefore I have assumed that they all belong together and have accessioned and boxed them accordingly'.
Amendments - updates/3notes The accession register only records 5 objects under E 1902.106. Undated and unsigned notes on the catalogue card indicates that a group of 9 was found at a later date, one of them marked E 1902.106 which prompted the whole group being assigned E 1902.106 as an IDNO. In 2001, an additional Manilla was found, bearing a Webster number that fitted the sequence of those already recorded as E 1902.106 so the object (which I presume is E 1902.106.4) was added to the group. There are now 10 objects recorded as E 1902.106 (1-10) instead of 5. It is currently not possible to ascertain which 5 were the original objects accessioned as E 1902.106 so a decision was taken to keep E 1902.106 as the main number for the 10 manillas until further investigation can take place.
Amendments - updates/4notes Reference Numbersbibliography E 1902.106.6
MAA: ?AR 1903.276-780
Other: 7352 [Webster Coll.]
Related Documents/0bibliography Catalogue card read, in blue biro: "1902 E 106 | AFRICA | WEST AFRICA / NIGERIA / Five pieces of bronze RING MONEY, well cast penannular rings of round or oval section with expanding horseshoe shaped ends. D. about 2.3" / Benin, West Africa 1897 Expedition/ purchased Stevens / Professor Bevan's donation | R.1903.276-280"
In second hand, blue biro: "(?)" and "/copper" [added around "bronze" in the original description]
In third hand, pencil: "I found 9 pieces altogether which have sequential (tho' not accession) numbers on them, they were tied together with a piece of string, but not with the one piece that had an accession number on it. Therefore I have assumed that they all belong together + have accessioned + boxed them accordingly"
Red circular sticker in bottom right of card.
E 1902.93-E 1902.115 are annotated in the Register as 'B. Stevens *Prof Bevan' indicating they were purchased at an undated 1902 auction at J.C. Stevens saleroom, 38 King Street Covent Garden, London, with money donated to the Museum’s Accessions Fund by Prof. Anthony Ashley Bevan.
Exhibited: "Currency in Africa", MAA, June 2005-February 2006, captioned "Manillas. The exchange value of manillas, and of people, fluctuated considerably, but an account from the fifteenth century reports that a slave (depending on age and gender) could be purchased for between 8 and 10 manillas. Benin, Nigeria. E 1902.106.
E 1902.94 - E 1902.115 are recorded in the Accession Register as acquired on the 'Benin, West Africa 1897 Expedition indicating they formed part of the spoils taken during the looting of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi’s royal palace by British troops led by Admiral Sir Henry Rawson. This punitive expeditionwas a response to the ambush of a British party led by Acting Consul General James Philips which had sought to enter Benin City during Ague (Igue), the new year festival of renewal, against the wishes of the Oba.
Collected on the 1897 Punitive Expedition
Found_together - assemblage