Other Owners, Harold Moseley Douglas; by 1978, Gerald Roberts Reitlinger; 1978, donated by Reitlinger to the Ashmolean Museum; 1983, loaned by the Ashmolean to the PRM.
Accession book entry: : ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM (per DR HARLE). [1 of] 5 items included in the Reitlinger Gift to the University. The original intention was that these should be transferred from the Ashmolean Museum to the Pitt Rivers Museum; this however proved to be impossible for legal reasons (see letter from Dr Harle dated 13.6.1983). The items are therefore held in the Pitt Rivers Museum on long-term loan. - S. Nigeria, Benin. [1 of] 3 small bronze human masks, with reticulated headdresses and frills around their necks. .1 has a frill [neck ornament] of conventionalized mudfish. All bear tribalmarkings [supraorbital marks] on the forehead. Av. H = c. 20 cm. These masks were originally in the possession of Harold Moseley Douglas, appointed Governor of Benin City after the punitive expeditionof 1897.; Written on object: : 1978.2625 [ZM 2/8/2004]; Documentation: : Correspondence with Ashmolean in RDF. [JC 11 10 2019]
Research Notes: Examined by Benin specialist Barbara Blackmun in July 1991. According to Blackmun, these masks probably all represent women, and if so, that they were given by the Queen Mother to her chiefs. [LMM 7 1991 ?; JC 9 7 2000]
Masks like this were symbols of leadership in Benin. They were worn by the Oba and the Edo chiefs and also sent to the Oba's vassal leaders as emblems of their authority. While the Edo chiefs wore these masks attached to their belts, often on the left hip, vassal leaders wore them around their necks. [presumably LMM 3 1991 ?]
Archaological / Ethnographic
Archival documentation ID
EA1978.2625
Class
Class: Mask; Class: Ornament; Class: Insignia; Class: Religion; Class: Status