Part of a collection made by Hugh N Nevins, District Officer, Benin City, for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Purchased by the WHMM on 15 January 1929 for £2.0.0.
Commemorative head; made of terracotta. Human head depicted wearing high beaded coral collar, flanged beaded necklace and hair plaits terminating in beads at both sides of head. Hole through centre of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, showing detail of headdress and necklet; 7 1/2" high x 7" diameter. Top of headdress and part of collar missing; cracked. Found on the Benin Ancestral altars. (The making of these heads is now virtually extinct).' See Collection File: Af1954,23.265-281.~Register 1954 Another [clay human head] similar [to Af1954,23.265], the whole of the head above the collar much damaged.