probably Ijebu kingdom;
with Royal Palace, Benin;
with William Downing Webster (1868–1913), Bicester, Great Britain;
from whom bought by Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827–1900), 13 August 1898 (£6.13);
by descent to his son Alexander Pitt-Rivers (1855–1927), Oxford;
by descent to his son George Pitt-Rivers (1890–1966), Oxford;
by inheritance to his wife Stella Pitt-Rivers, Oxford;
with George Ortiz (1927–2013), Geneva;
with Everett Rassiga (1922–2003), New York;
from whom bought by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, April 1974
The collecting history of this work of art is partial. The National Gallery of Australia welcomes further information regarding its history of ownership.
Nigerian Tribal Arts, Arts Council of Great Britain, London 1961, cat.26, as ‘hemispherical bronze head, very thinly cast in a highly conceptual style; the marks over the eyes are links with Benin, but the piece must have been made outside the
Catalogue of the Pitt Rivers museum, Farnham, 1898, vol.5, p.1699, as ‘Benin city’ and ‘Edo’;
Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers, Antique Works of Art from Benin, London: private printing 1900 (reprinted 1974), plate XXIII, figs.137–38, p.46, illus. b&w;
Felix von Luschan, Die Altertümer von Benin, Berlin and Leipzig:De Gruyter1919 (reprinted New York: Hacker Art Books 1968), fig.536, p.364 illus. b&w as ‘bronzekopt in Rushmore, nach P. R. 137/8 ...’;
William Fagg, Merveilles de l’Art Nigerien, Paris: E?d. du che?ne 1963, no.69, illus. b&w as ‘Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farham’;
Elsy Leuzinger, The Art of Black Africa, London: Studio Vista 1972, K28, pp.168–69, illus. b&w, collection: George Ortiz, Geneva’
