Documentation: : Christie's catalogue in RDF; Accession entry: : Double ended comb, carved with lozenge designs. This piece was said by Christies' staff to have come from General Pitt Rivers' collection. However, it is not illustrated in Antique Works of Art from Benin. The original marking of the object begins 'Sobo comb. Benin' and ends with the date 1898, but the middle part of the inscription has been deliberately obliterated. The name 'Ling Roth' is however just discernible. A call to the Bankfield Museum of which Ling Roth was Curator suggests that his material was not marked in this particular style. Possibly this piece was given by Ling Roth to Pitt Rivers? [NB see below, research field]; Written on object: : SOBO COMB. BENIN. [illegible] ROTH 1899 [illegible] [in pencil:] [either] 1681 [or] 1891 [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 1/2/2006]; Pitt Rivers Museum label: : NIGERIA BENIN SOBO Wooden comb Purch. Christies 1988.11.2 [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 1/2/2006]
Research Notes: Illustrated and described on page 1,681 in volume 5 of the manuscript catalogue of General Pitt-Rivers's 'second' collection, held in the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives at Cambridge University Library (MSS Add.9455): 'Date: 1898 May / Drawing and Description of object: Presented by H. Ling Roth Esq, 32 Prescot St. Halifax ... [1 of] 3 carved wooden combs from the Sobo Country, Benin W. Africa [3 Drawings annotated 1/3] / Price: Presented / Deposited at: / Removed to: Room VII case 69 [in red].' All other items obtained from Roth from Benin were dated 11 May. [AP 22/03/2010; JC 12 9 2013]
For a plate illustrating Ijo and Itsekiri wood combs, see 'Notes on the Jekris, Sobos and Ijos of the Warri District of the Niger Coast Protectorate', by Reginald Granville and Felix N. Roth, in Journal of the Anthropological Insititute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 28 (August-November 1898), pp. 104-26. [AP 5/4/2000; JC 12 9 2013]