Accession No
Z 12049
Description
Finger ring with a very long copper alloy bar set with pieces of red glass or coral. Many of the pieces of glass are missing and the resin used to stick them in place is visible. The ring is thin and there are two circular additions either side of the bar forming a butterfly-like shape.
Place
Africa; West Africa; Nigeria; Edo State; Benin City
Period
Source
Thomas, Northcote Whitridge [field collector]; Bevan, Anthony Ashley (Prof.) [monetary donor]
Department
Anth
Reference Numbers
Z 12049; 42 [Thomas Collection number - 1st catalogue]; T.10.1590 [on object]
Cultural Affliation
Edo
Material
Metal; Copper Alloy; ?Brass; ?Glass; ?Coral
Local Term
olokiui
Measurements
28mm x 27mm x 280mm
Events
Description (Physical description)
Brass ring with very long bar set with glass. The glass beads are brought from Ilorin and Abeokuta. The ring is worn by king's women.
Event Date
Author: maa
Description (Labels & Markings)
'T.10.1590' written in white pen under the bar.
N.B. The '9' is indistinct and could be a 7.
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring
Loan (Exhibition)
See also initial enquiry- filed as Loan. no. 30 in this database, with Barbara Plankensteiner as the borrower- same exhibition
Touring exhibition entitled \'Benin. Höfische Kunst aus Westafrika\' (Benin. Royal art from West Africa)
Initial email enquiry, 19/12/2005 says:
> 'The exhibition is a co-operation project between the Ethnological Museum in Vienna, Austria, the Federal Exhibition Hall in Bonn, the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, both in Germany, and the Art Institute Chicago. The exhibition will be opened in Vienna in May 2007, will then be shown in Bonn from September to December 2007, in Berlin from January 2008 to April 2008 and in Chicago from May to August 2008. This large exhibition on Benin culture and art will for the first time re-unite masterworks from all the important historic collections in Europe, the US and Nigeria. We have already been granted loans from several important museum collections.'
Event Date
Author: maa
Loan (Exhibition)
See also Loan. No. 34 on this database , where Vienna, Berlin, Bonn, Chicago are noted as the borrowers- same exhibition
Initial email enquiry, 19/12/2005 says:
> 'The exhibition is a co-operation project between the Ethnological Museum in Vienna, Austria, the Federal Exhibition Hall in Bonn, the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, both in Germany, and the Art Institute Chicago. The exhibition will be opened in Vienna in May 2007, will then be shown in Bonn from September to December 2007, in Berlin from January 2008 to April 2008 and in Chicago from May to August 2008. This large exhibition on Benin culture and art will for the first time re-unite masterworks from all the important historic collections in Europe, the US and Nigeria. We have already been granted loans from several important museum collections.'
Event Date
Author: maa
Context (Related Documents)
'1910-13 T.10.1590' has been crossed through on the catalogue card.
Event Date
Author: maa
Context (Amendments / updates)
Some of the red glass is missing. [K. Sutton]
Event Date 23/5/2001
Author: Katrina Dring
Context (Related Documents)
1st Thomas Catalogue notes numbers 1-249 as "Bini (Benin City)". [R.Hand]
Event Date 31/5/2001
Author: Katrina Dring
Context (Related Documents)
See E 1910.118 and E 1913.3 records for further details about the Thomas Collection from Nigeria. [T.Cotterill]
Event Date 7/5/2001
Author: Katrina Dring
Context (Amendments / updates)
Numbered '42' in the Thomas Collection, 1st Catalogue.
Event Date 14/12/2016
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson
Description (Labels & Markings)
The number 'T.10.1590' has been written on the object.
Event Date 14/12/2016
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson
Context (Display)
Exhibited: Benin: Court Arts of West Africa Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 8/5/2007- 3/9/2007; Musee du quai Branly, Paris [instead of Bonn] 7/10/2007- 6/1/2008; Berlin 7/2/2008- 25/5/2008; Chicago 27/6/2008- 21/9/2008
Event Date 16/3/2016
Author: Rachel Hand
Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2017.3728 | Remedial
Event Date 6/2/2017
Author: Kirstie Williams
Context (Related Documents)
According to Prof. Paul Basu, SOAS, in an email send to Chris Wingfield on 30 March 2017, following the opening of a Benin display including this object, it "was included in an initial shipment of objects that Thomas sent to the British Museum in April 1909. In the archive of the British Museum's Prehistory & Europe Department there are packing lists with prices paid (for which Thomas was seeking reimbursement) and the ‘ring’, item 42, is listed as costing 4/6. Elsewhere in a letter to T.A. Joyce at the British Museum Thomas mentions that some of the objects were ‘rather dear, but prices are up in Benin City’."
Event Date 30/3/2017
Author: Chris Wingfield
Context (Amendments / updates)
Record updated as part of the Museum Affordances project 2018-2020
Event Date 13/8/2018
Author: Katrina Dring
Description (Physical description)
Finger ring with a very long copper alloy bar set with pieces of red glass or coral. Many of the pieces of glass are missing and the resin used to stick them in place is visible. The ring is thin and there are two circular additions either side of the bar forming a butterfly-like shape.
Event Date 13/8/2018
Author: Katrina Dring
Context (Analysis)
Analysed using XRF instrumentation by Dr Agnese Benzonelli, University of Cambridge, as part of research by Prof. Marcos Martinon-Torres and Dr Agnese Benzonelli into Benin material at MAA. Initial readings suggest the red inlays are glass
Event Date 3/4/2023
Author: rachel hand
FM:125245
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