Details

Title

Bracelet

Artist/Maker

Edo Artist, Kingdom of Benin (Nigeria)

Date

nineteenth century or earlier

Medium

Ivory

Dimensions

4 3/4 × 3 × 3 1/8 inches

Credit

Fred and Rita Richman Collection

Accession #

2002.288

On View

Currently not on view

This ivory bracelet from the 800-year-old Edo Kingdom of Benin is decorated with motifs that refer to the great sixteenth-century warrior king Oba Esigie. Motifs associated with Esigie were popular during the reign of the late-nineteenth-century king Oba Ovoranmwen. The motifs include a Portuguese soldier on horseback and an image of the king himself, depicted in the guise of a leopard. The bracelet’s deep burgundy color is the result of repeated applications of red palm oil mixed with spirits.

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