Associatie/beschrijving (online getoond)description Dergelijke bronzen platen werden met nagels gespijkerd aan de pilaren van het paleis van de koning (Oba) van Benin te Edo. De hofdignitaris is herkenbaar aan zijn halssieraad en hoofddeksel van kralen. In zijn hand houdt hij een muziekinstrument, ukuse. D
Verzamelgeschiedenis (toelichting)provenance Het is niet uitgesloten dat Tillmann deze plaat verwierf van Charles Ratton, die het op zijn beurt waarschijnlijk door ruil weer verwierf van het Museum f. Volkerkunde te Frankfurt am Main. Op de andere plaat - 1772-2017 die werd geretourneerd aan de familie - werd het nummer N.S. 1156 aangetroffen. Dit nummer verwijst naar voornoemd museum. Zie Catalogus Sotheby's 23 june 2006: Art of Africa, Oceanian and the Americas. no. 122. Zie ook: Elliott, C., The (Re) Verse of a Benin Bronze Plaque: Tracing the Story Behind a Museum and Collector's Piece. In: TribalArt, XII-4, nr. 49, 2008, pag. 134 t/m 139.
'At the Tropenmuseum, in 1947, a long-term loan by W. Georg Tilmann - the family dropped the last n in the name when they moved to the United States - which included a bronze plaque (TM-1772-2018), was recorded as a donation by Wolf Tillman, the son of Georg Tillmann, based in Horsham, USA at the time (AR-A 1947).
'[...]. The exact origin of the Benin plaque is not clear. Tillmann acquired objects from multiple dealers, including the French ethnographic art dealer Charles Ratton (1896-1985) (Drieënhuizen n.d.: 142). Museum documentation takes the Ratton route seriously stating that ‘It is possible that Tillmann acquired this plate from Charles Ratton, who probably acquired it in an exchange with the Museum für Völkerkunde in Frankfurt am Main. On the other plate – [TM]-1772-2017 which was returned to the family – the number N.S. 1156 was found. This number refers to the aforementioned museum. See Catalogue Sotheby’s 23 June 2006: Art of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. no. 122.’
However Catherine Elliott (2008: 134-139) who examined the provenance of the returned plate (TM-1772-2017) could find no evidence of the plaque that is currently in the Tropenmuseum holdings (TM-1772-2018) said to have also come from Ratton. This is further supported by the fact that no other inventory numbers than G T 45, which stands for Georg Tillmann, have been found.
The Nigerian antiquities specialist Barbara Blackmun suggests that the figure depicted on the plaque (TM-1772-2018) is Oba Esigie who ruled the Benin Kingdom in the early 16th century. For this reason, Blackmun estimates this plaque to have been made between the 1540s and 1700 (Faber, Dartel, Wijs 2011: 133).'
(Excerpt from Provenance no. 2 'The Benin Collections at the National Museum of World Cultures' written by Rosalie Hans with Annette Schmidt, 21-01-2021).
Elliott, C., The (Re) Verse of a Benin Bronze Plaque: Tracing the Story Behind a Museum and Collector's Piece. In: TribalArt, XII-4, nr. 49, 2008, pag. 134 t/m 139.
Publicaties over het objectbibliography Faber, P., S. Wijs & D. van Dartel, 'Africa at the Tropenmuseum'. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2011
<BR><BR>Available in <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images_from_the_Tropenmuseum" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>.
For more information about the provenance, see <a href="https://issuu.com/tropenmuseum/docs/2021_provenance_2__benin__e-book" target="_blank"> Provenance #2 – the Benin collections at the National Museum of World Cultures </a> (NB: Issuu uses cookies).