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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Pectoral with two officials
Edo, Benin kingdom, Nigeria
16th–17th century
Medium/Technique
Copper alloy
Dimensions
Length x width: 31.1 x 28.6 cm (12 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Owen Lehman Collection
Accession NumberL-G 7.28.2012
CollectionsJewelry, Africa and Oceania
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Pectorals
Provenance16th/17th century, probably commissioned from the Igun Eronmwon, or royal brasscasters guild, by a member of the royal court of Benin. 1897, probably looted from the Royal Palace, Benin City, during the British military occupation of Benin. August 12, 1897, sold by Miss Eva Cutter (dealer), London for £ 15 to Lt. General Lt.-General Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers (b. 1827 - d. 1900), Farnham, England; until the 1960s, kept at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, and passed by descent within the family [see note]; 1970s, sold upon the dispersal of the collection. By 2011, Robert Owen Lehman, Rochester, NY; 2012, promised gift of Robert Owen Lehman to the MFA.
NOTE:
The collection of the privately-owned Pitt-Rivers museum passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in the 1960s and the collection was sold.
NOTE:
The collection of the privately-owned Pitt-Rivers museum passed by descent through Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’s son Alexander Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers to his grandson, Captain George Pitt-Rivers (1890-1966) and his common law wife, Stella Howson-Clive (Pitt-Rivers). The museum closed in the 1960s and the collection was sold.