Description (Labels & Markings)
Marked in white ink: '14415' [Webster Lot. no.].
Event Date
Author: Lucie Carreau

Context (Field collection)
Presumed taken on the British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897, as Webster became the pre-eminent dealer in looted Benin material
Event Date 2/1897
Author: rachel hand

Description (Labels & Markings)
Museum label adhered to object reads: '1902.443. Mount from warhorn. Benin. W.D. Webster, Esq.'
Event Date 1902
Author: Lucie Carreau

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card notes: "The mounting of a warhorn; a ring-band decorated with a chameleon and various symbols."
Event Date 6/6/2000
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
In January 2017, Prof. Marcos Martinon-Torres and Agnese Benzonelli, UCL Institute of Archaeology, tested this idno using a portable XRF as part of a programme of base metal analysis of Benin material.
Event Date 27/1/2017
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Other owners)
Given Webster's acquisition of much of the spoils of the Benin West Africa 1897 Expedition, and the early date of 1902-3, it is likely his personal donation of Benin material was also collected on the 1897 Punitive Expedition.
Event Date 2/10/2018
Author: Lucie Carreau

Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card reads, in blue biro: "1902 E 443 | AFRICA | WEST AFRICA / NIGERIA / The Mounting of a Warhorn: a ring band decorated with a chameleon and various symbols. (1.6" x 1.9") / Benin W. Africa / Mr W.D. Webster. | R. 1903 251"

Red circular sticker on bottom right of card.
Event Date 24/8/2020
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
Event Date 13/3/2023
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Part of the Digital Benin project website. Available at https://digitalbenin.org/catalogue/28_E1902443

Small ring-like mounts such as these would have been attached to the base of tusks or horns. They are cast in brass or bronze, usually with intricate decorative motifs and symbolic animals such as leopards.

A variety of sound-making instruments were and continue to be used by the Edo people. The kind of instruments vary, including wind, percussion and string. In addition to their sound-making qualities, sometimes objects would be intricately decorated and thus served as status symbols. Bells and ancestral - or rattle - staffs are frequently found on altars made to memorialise and commemorate ancestors. Instruments can be cast in brass or bronze, carved from ivory or wood, and also made from iron.
Event Date 13/3/2023
Author: maa