Context (Field collection)
Gifted to Thorold Masefield when British High Commissioner to Nigeria by Dr Joseph Eboreime, Curator of the National Museum of Benin during the Great Benin centenary activities in February 1997
Event Date 1997
Author: rachel hand

Context (Other owners)
From the collection of John Thorold Masefield C.M.G., (b. 1939 Uganda). He studied Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, graduated with a double first in 1962 (St Johns College), and then had a career in what is now the F.C.O., serving as High Commissioner in Tanzania (1989-92) and to Nigeria (1994-97), during which period he worked with the Oba of Benin to commemorate the centenary of the 1897 raid. He was subsequently Governor of Bermuda (1997-2001).

On his marriage to Jennifer Mary Trowell (d. 29th April 2019, aged 79), Kathleen Margaret Sifton (1904-85) best known as Margaret Trowell, became his mother-in-law. She received art training at the Slade (1924-26), moved with her husband Hubert Carey Trowell, to Uganda in 1929, and established formal art education at Makarere College in 1937, which served East Africa, drawing students from Tanzania and Kenya as well as Uganda. Trowell played a major role as a mentor of 'modern' African art in this context.
Event Date 2/3/2022
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Large wooden figure of an standing Oba dressed in coral robes, ornament and headdress. Carved from the solid with an oval base. The Oba holds a cylindrical object in each hand
Event Date 2/3/2022
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
cf speech by Thorold Masefield at the 1997 ceremony in Michael Bowles (2000) THE KING, THE BRIT, THE BRONZE AND THE CARTOON in the Journal of Museum Ethnography, May 2000, No. 12, MEG Conference 1999: Glimpses of Africa Museums, scholarship and popular culture, The Horniman Museum, London, pp. 133-146
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40793652
Event Date 27/9/2022
Author: rachel hand

Context (Other owners)
Dr. Joseph Omozuanvbo Eboreime (1948-1921) was Director of Monuments, Heritage and Sites of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) of Nigeria.
Event Date 23/3/2023
Author: rachel hand