Part of a collection made by Hugh N Nevins, District Officer, Benin City, for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Purchasd by the WHMM on 15 January 1929 for £3.0.0.
Commemorative head; made of terracotta. Human head depicted wearing high beaded coral collar (at front only) and beaded udaeba headband. Has tiered hairstyle with two front partings, hair plaits at either side of face, three inset scarification marks above eyes and impressed irises. Hole through centre of head.
The Wellcome Historical Medical Museum flimsy inventory card records: 'Head. Terra cotta, showing detail of headdress and necklet; hole running through centre. 6 1/4" x 4". Found on the Benin Ancestral altars. (The making of these heads is now virtually extinct).' ~Register 1954 Another clay human head, with high beaded collar, the beads are not shown encircling the back of the neck, as in 268 above [in the register], mouth defaced.
Good; chipped around edges of central hole and at lower edge on back of head. Chip from top of beaded collar on left proper side. Some areas of black oxidation.