Context (Related Documents)
Replacement catalogue card reads, in black biro: "1904E 378 | AFRICA | WEST AFRICA / NIGERIA / Standing figure of Man, cast in bronze, holding a hammer-like tool in the right hand. H.7.1" / Benin. / Purchased Webster's Sale 1904. / F.J.H. Jenkinson's donation | R. 1905 779."

In second hand, blue biro: "looks more like a scythe -[diagram]- shaped."

Red circular sticker in bottom right of card.
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Description (Labels & Markings)
Old handwritten museum label adhered to rear of figure is annotated in pencil: "684"
Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

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

Context (Auction / Sale)
Purchased from William Downing Webster, a dealer in ethnography, with money donated to the Museum Accession Fund by Francis John Henry Jenkinson (1853-1923), University of Cambridge Librarian (1889-1923).

Event Date 1904
Author: maa

Description (Labels & Markings)
Webster Lot number for 1904 sale '13752' has been written on the rear of the figure in white.
Event Date 1904
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Context (Acquisition Details)
Noted in the register as 'Benin/ Webster Sale 1904' and annotated 'though S.G. Fenton'.
This is written in the line for E 1904.376 but the ditto marks below suggest it may apply to the whole F.J.H. Jenkinson donation.
Event Date 1904
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card reads: "Standing figure of a man cast in bronze holding a hammer-like tool in the right hand."
Added in different handwriting "looks more like a scythe [pen drawing] shaped."
Event Date 7/6/2000
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 (References)
Fenton's antique dealers established a well-known 'Old Curiosity Shop' in the mid 19th century in Bury St. Edmunds. George Fenton was trading at 5 & 6 Meat Market, Bury St. Edmunds in 1855.
By 1888, if not earlier, they had opened 'The Old Curiosity Shop' in London, 11, New Oxford Street, where Samuel G. Fenton was trading as Fenton and Sons. Letters to Gen. Pitt Rivers, regarding potential new acquisition are addressed from Fenton and Sons on Oxford Street and are dated to 1888.
See http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/primary-documents-index/16-second-collection-1880-1900/659-pitt-rivers-and-fentons/index.html
See also Antique Dealers: the British Antique Trade in the 20th Century, https://antiquetrade.leeds.ac.uk/dealerships/36132 Both accessed 2/10/2018.
Event Date 2/10/2018
Author: rachel hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
Photograph attached to rear of catalogue card.
Event Date 27/8/2020
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

Ewua is the title of a priest belonging to the Holy Aruosa Church, also referred to as the church of the Ọba of Benin. The church was first established by Portuguese missionaries in the fifteenth century. Each morning, noon and evening, the Ewua priest goes to the Ọba to lead prayers or devotion (this is an indication of the Catholic culture of the Angelus at 6:00 am, noon and 6:00 pm). The bronze casters today say that the figure holds an Avan, a small axe, in their left hand, though European literature refers to it as a hammer. He is also depicted wearing the equal-armed or Maltese cross on his chest.

Ewua messenger figures refer to cast sculptures of men with cross-shaped pendants worn around their necks and so-called cat’s whiskers scarification on both cheeks, which is thought to denote ‘foreigners’ or non-Edo peoples, and the round-topped cap or hat with open areas.

Ewua is the title of a priest belonging to the Holy Aruosa Church, also referred to as the church of the Ọba of Benin. The church was first established by Portuguese missionaries in the fifteenth century. Each morning, noon and evening, the Ewua priest goes to the Ọba to lead prayers or devotion (this is an indication of the Catholic culture of the Angelus at 6:00 am, noon and 6:00 pm). The bronze casters today say that the figure holds an Avan, a small axe, in their left hand, though European literature refers to it as a hammer. He is also depicted wearing the equal-armed or Maltese cross on his chest.

Ewua messenger figures refer to cast sculptures of men with cross-shaped pendants worn around their necks and so-called cat’s whiskers scarification on both cheeks, which is thought to denote ‘foreigners’ or non-Edo peoples, and the round-topped cap or hat with open areas.
Event Date 13/3/2023
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Ewua. Figure of a priest, cast in bronze on a small rectangular pedestal base. The standing figure holds a hammer-like tool or scythe in the right hand. Remains of ochre/ earth on surface, especially the back of the neck
Event Date 14/3/2023
Author: rachel hand