Royal Palace, Benin;
looted as part of the British punitive expedition by Lt. Norman Burrows (North Lancashire Regiment), Derbyshire, February 1897;
from whom bought by Augustus Pitt-Rivers, Farnham, 2 May 1898 (£20);
by descent to his son Alexander Pitt-Rivers (1855–1927), Oxford;
by descent to George Pitt-Rivers, Oxford;
by inheritance to his wife Stella Pitt-Rivers, Oxford, 1966;
with Everett Rassiga (1922–2003), New York;
from whom bought by the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, February 1973
The collecting history of this work of art is partial. The National Gallery of Australia welcomes further information regarding its history of ownership.
W.D. Webster, Of Ethnographical Specimens in Bronze, Wrought Iron, Ivory, and Wood, from Benin City, West Africa, taken at the fall of the city in February, 1897, by the British punitive Expedition under the command of Admiral Rawson, misidentied as vol. IV, no. 24, no.4 (stock number 9795, £50);
Catalogue of the Pitt Rivers museum, Farnham, 1898, vol.5, p.1635
Lieutenant-General Pitt-Rivers, Antique Works of Art from Benin, London: private printing 1900 (reprinted 1974), plate XIV, figs 84–85, p.29, illus. b&w
