Description (Physical description)
Armlet in shape of bar brooch with T shaped cross ends. The bar and cross-pieces are are set with red glass beads. The armlet is of brass. The fastenings are double curves of brass with eyes at ends, pivoting on copper and brass rivets in brooch. Worn only by king's women or rich chief's daughter.

Event Date
Author: maa

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 cooperation 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 (Amendments / updates)
Traces of old bronze disease present. [K. Sutton]
Event Date 21/5/2001
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: maa

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 2007
Author: rachel hand

Context (Catalogue)
Numbered '43' in the Thomas Collection, 1st Catalogue.
Event Date 14/12/2016
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Labels & Markings)
The number 'T.10.1485' has been written on the object'
Event Date 14/12/2016
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

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 ‘armlet’, item 43, is listed as costing 12/9. 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

Description (Physical description)
An armband or armlet with hinged arms and a long copper alloy bar set with coral and with 'T' shaped ends. The bar is set with eight pieces of coral as well as an additional piece at each end. There is a small amount of string tied through a hole in the end of each arm, possibly part of the original fastening. The majority of the metal is copper alloy, although one of the arm hinges appears to be made from copper.
Event Date 13/8/2018
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Amendments / updates)
Record updated as part of the Museum Affordances project 2018-2020

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 inlay is glass not coral
Event Date 3/4/2023
Author: rachel hand