Major Percy Powell-Cotton travelled to Benin City at the start of his second expeditionto Cameroon in January 1931. While there he visited the brass casters and filmed the process of lost-wax casting. It appears that Major Powell-Cotton subsequently commissioned two series of lost-wax castings via Holt's shipping agents or possibly through the Resident in Benin City, Harry Maddocks. This set Af1932,1205.1-7 was donated to the Museum in 1932; the other set ( accession numbers ETH CAM2.955-971), along with Major Powell- Cotton's diary and films taken during his trip to Benin City remain at the Powell-Cotton Museum in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent.
Exhibited: 1970-1973, London, Museum of Mankind, Divine Kingship in Africa 1991 Feb-Apr, Norwich, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Man and Metal in Ancient Nigeria