Standing figure of cast brass/bronze, representing a royal messenger wearing a brimmed hat, fringed chest covering, wrapper and bracelets, holding a blacksmith's hammer: West Africa, Nigeria, Edo State, Benin, 17th - 18th century
MESSENGER FIGURE, cast brass. NIGERIA, Benin; 17th or 18th century. Standing male figure of a royal messenger (also sometimes termed a court official). He wears a brimmed hat, fringed chest-covering, wrapper, bracelets & a cross-shaped pendant. The left hand holds an implement (variously described in the literature as a blacksmith's hammer or a key). The right hand had inserted a long uneven brass rod when acquired by NMS, which appeared to be a later, European, insertion. Condition: complete, excepting the loss of portions of the hat brim. A more successful casting than 630. See: Supplementary File; "New Benin Discoveries in Scotland", by Dale Idiens, African Arts 14 (4), August, 1986, 52. Wider World Gallery Label Text, 2001: Royal Messenger. Nigeria, Benin. Seventeenth or eighteenth century. Cast brass figure of an attendant with scarification marks at the corners of the mouth. He holds a blacksmith's hammer, and wears a brimmed hat, fringed chest covering, wrapper and bracelets. The cross is a symbol of creation. Figures of this type are said in Benin to represent messengers and about a dozen of them are known in museums around the world.|| The four Benin figures (A.1985.630-633) were donated to the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, 9 Union Street, Greenock in 1925 by Sir William Northrup McMillan (a wealthy American of Scots descent). The McLean Museum and Art Gallery lent the four figures to the Royal Scottish Museum on 1 February 1973 (A.L.468.1-4). The Inverclyde district Council (then responsible for the McLean Museum and Art Gallery), Municipal Buildings, Greenock sold the four figures to the Royal Museum of Scotland on 18 November 1985.
Artistic Legacies, 2011-07-29 - present, National Museums Scotland, National Museum of Scotland || Benin - Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria, 2007-05-08 - 2008-09-21, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Museum Für Völkerkunde || Art UK Sculpture (online aggregator ArtUK)
Idiens, Dale, New Benin Discoveries in Scotland, African Arts 14 (4), August 1986, 52