IDNO

P.61230.GIJ

Description

A documentation photograph of a bronze bowl with integral stand from Igbo-Ukwu. The bowl has a round base or stand and is decorated with incised diagonal hatching, concentric circles, and raised dots and circles with a rosette motif.

Place

W Africa; ?Nigeria; Igbu Uku

Cultural Affliation

Igbo (Ibo)

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.61128.GIJ to P.61278.GIJ were kept in box 13, now numbered C294/.

Publication:
Same image in Jones, 1939, p. 165, Figure B with the caption, Bronze brazier or crater. He writes. “An object like a krater or brazier (diameter 10”, height 8”), with decorations of incised diagonal hatching, and of stamped or punched dots and circles, and with applied rosette-like balls of twisted bronze wire, and of bronze models of locusts or other similar insects.”

Publication: In the Art of Africa exhibition. Image in Phillips, 1995, on p. 384, Provenance: 1939, excavated by Isaiah Anozie; 1939, purchased and presented to the Lagos Museum by John Field

Publication: Shaw, 1970. pp.112-13, pl.5

Context: Thurstan Shaw contributes to the catalogue and writes the following about this object. “A number of Igbo-Ukwu bronze castings show signs of being skeuo-morphically related to objects previously made in other materials. So it is with this bowl on its own pedestal base, which almost certainly largely copies a ceramic original. a number of pottery bowls joined to their own pedestal bases were found in the excavation. The two zones of hatched triangles on the bronze at the top and bottom of the stand can be matched in pottery vessels. Separate copper handles for calabashes were also found, and were the prototypes for the handles for calabashes were also found, and were the prototypes for the handless cast integrally with bronze bowls imitating the shape of calabashes. There are many other examples of skeumorphis in the Igbo-Ukwu material.

This specimen may have been cast in two or more pieces, which were subsequently joined together it additional molten metal. That this is what was done in the cast of another large vessel from Igbo-Ukwu has been proved by means of sectioning it across the join - but such an investigation has not been carried out on this particular bowl.

Stylistically, ‘the strange rococo almost Faberge-like virtuosity’ of the full range of Igbo-Ukwu work makes it ‘justly famous for a fragile, jewel-like aesthetic of a delicacy to be compared only to with Roman pieces imported at the Nabatean capital at Faras’. The Igbo-Ukwu bronze work makes the famous bronze heads from Ife seem less arresting, and the later brasses of Benin seem less brilliant, although Benin works are much better known on account of their quantity and because of a hundred years of exposure to European and American scrutiny. However, the uniqueness of Igbo-Ukwu are presents a tremendous problem - what were its antecedents and its successes? Out of what tradition did it grow? What became of the style and standards it embodied? There is a challenge to set Igbo-Ukwu art in its wider geographical and chronological context than the isolation it at present enjoys (Shaw, 1995, p. 384)

Context: Thurstan Shaw provides a very detailed account of the Ibo Ukwu excavations he carried out in his book, Unearthing Igbo-Ukwu. He details the history of the site and the methodical approach in his field work. He notes that in 1939 a man was digging in his compound and found a decorated bronze bowl. The continued to dig and found a variety of other bronzes. A district officer heard about the bronzes and realised their archaeological importance and bought them. He presented the whole collection to the Department of Antiquities..the full name of the town is ‘Igbo-Ukwu’ Great Ibo to distinguish it from other places called ‘Ibo’.

One interesting thing about the bronzes found at Igbo-Ukwu was that their style and decoration were quite unlike the well-known bronzes of Benin and Ife. Who made them? Had they been made under the influence of Benin? And how long ago? The present people of Igbo-Ukwu had no idea they were there, but it was suggested that they could not be very old because some of the cloth was preserved with them. “

Context: Jones who was a District Officer at the time of the initial discovery of the bronzes at Ibo Uwku notes that, “ It is impossible at present to date these Ibo bronzes. They are unlike any other bronze work from S. Nigeria or the Gold Coast. Their workmanship is excellent and they are in a very fair state of preservation”. (Jones, 1939, p. 165).

Bibliographical Reference:
Shaw, T. 1970. Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria, London.
Shaw, T. 1977 Unearthing Igbo-Ukwu. (Oxford University Press Ibadan)
Jones, G.I. 1939. “Ibo Bronzes from the Awka Division” Nigerian Field, Vol. VIII, no.4, pp.164-167)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 29/1/2008]