Commemorative Head

Artist Unidentified

16th–17th century

Object PlaceNigeria

Medium/TechniqueTerracotta, iron

DimensionsOverall: 16.5 x 8.9 cm (6 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)

Credit LineRobert Owen Lehman Collection

Accession number2013.1732

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Africa and Oceania

Provenance16th/17th century, probably made for a member of the Igun Eronmwon, or royal brasscasters guild, for a family altar, Benin City. 1897, looted from the Royal Palace during the British military occupation of Benin. June 8, 1899, sold by William Downing Webster (dealer; b. 1863 – d. 1913) to 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. About 1970s, acquired by Robert Owen Lehman, Rochester, NY; 2013, gift of Robert Owen Lehman to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 18, 2013)

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.