Pectoral with two officials

Royal Bronze-casting Guild (Igun Eronmwon)

Artist Unidentified

16th–17th century

Medium/TechniqueCopper alloy

DimensionsLength x width: 31.1 x 28.6 cm (12 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.)

Credit LineRobert Owen Lehman Collection

Accession numberL-G 7.28.2012

On View

On view

ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment

Collections

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.