Lot 34
  • 34

A SUPERB AND IMPORTANT BENIN BRONZE PLAQUE, Nigeria, Circa 16th-17th Century

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

'98 - 1-15 - 101' in white pigment on lower front corner.  

Provenance

The British Museum, London, 1898-1952 (inv. no. '98 - 1 - 15 - 101')
John J. Klejman, New York, acquired from the above through exchange in 1952
Chaim and Renee Gross, New York, acquired from the above in 1957

Exhibited

The British Museum, Assyrian Room, London, September 1897 (presumably)
Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., African Negro Art, May 6 - May 31, 1953
Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Chaim Gross, 1976 (additional venues: Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, November 5, 1976 - January 2, 1977; Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, March 27 - May 1, 1977; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, May 17 - July 17, 1977)
The Center for African Art, New York, Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, May 16 - December 31, 1991

Literature

Howard University, African Negro Art, Washington, D.C., 1953, p. 2 (ill.), cat. 49
Arnold Rubin, The Sculptor's Eye, Washington, D.C., 1976, cover and p. 52, cat. 46
Susan Vogel, Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art, Munich, 1991, p. 257, cat. 118

Condition

Good condition overall; losses to the lower right and left corner and small areas of the top left corner as seen on photographs; casting flaws next to the proper left leg and inside the figures skirt; feather on top of the headdress broken, all as seen on photographs; looped knob of the sword slightly titled; exceptionally fine aged patina with partial corrosion and red residue.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Records at the British Museum note that the Gross plaque entered the Museum in 1898 along with nearly three hundred other plaques (The British Museum, Archive of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas). In all likelihood, this plaque was one of the "series" of 304 plaques loaned to the Museum for the purposes of a study by Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquis of Salisbury, Principal Secretary to his Majesty for Foreign Affairs.

The more than three hundred plaques had been sent by Sir Ralph Moor KCMG, Commissioner and Consul General of His Majesty in the Niger Coast Protectorate (Read 1899: Preface). The plaques were exhibited in the Assyrian Room of the British Museum in the fall of 1897 (Coombes 1994: 27 and Plankensteiner 2007: 204). Following the exhibition the Museum parted with 104 plaques in aid of the Protectorate (Read 1899: Preface), or as Ezra (1992: 16) notes, "in order to pay for the expenses of the [1897 British Punitive] Expedition and to offer a pension to its participants or their survivors."

The fascination in Europe upon discovering the arts of Benin can be explained by the prevailing taste for Antiquities and by the nature of the works, that is to say, a Royal art entirely dedicated to glorifying the sovereign, or Oba, and his court. Benin artworks brought back from Africa on the expedition were acquired by many major European museums at the time, including the British Museum, London; the Naturhistorische Museum, Vienna; the Museum für Völkerkunde, Dresden; the Ethnologische Museum, Berlin; as well as museums in Leipzig, Cologne, Munich and others. In 1668 Olfert Dapper (quoted after Falgayrettes-Leveau 1989: 230) described the royal palaces of Benin and the bronze plaques which decorated them in the following terms: "There are several apartments for the ministers of the Prince and fine galleries, most of them as big as the ones in the stock exchange of Amsterdam. They are supported by wooden pillars, sheathed in brass and engraved with their victory, and particular care is taken to keep them very clean."

Most of the plaques recorded today depict court scenes or war scenes, important events in the life of the Oba. The offered plaque depicts a finely-cast single figure, probably a war commander and a chief, as suggested by the high coral neckband and a leopard's tooth necklace. His clothes are a surcoat of leopard skin, and a loin-cloth, presumably of the same material, a mark of high status. He wears an unusual hat with a feather plume now broken on the top. The shape of the hat is more than likely modeled on a grenadier hat. In the late 1600s the wide brims of the traditional military hats were at odds with the grenadier's throwing arm, and a hat without a brim was devised, soon spreading throughout the European military (Wilcox 1959: 114, 149 in Abbass 1972: 44). The hat worn by the figure on the Gross plaque was more than likely modeled on a Portuguese form of grenadiers' hats. The Benin Kingdom had been in a trading relationship with Portuguese merchants since the 15th/16th century, and influences of this contact can often be seen in Benin art. The figure carries an eden sword in his left hand, a marker of the status of a chief in the court of Benin.

For a nearly identical plaque in the collection of the British Museum, London (inv. no. '98-1-15-84') see Read (1899: pl. XXVII, fig. 5). The presence of this plaque in the British Museum's collection may explain why the museum exchanged the Gross plaque in 1952 along with two others with the dealer John J. Klejman for an important Benin figure. Many plaques seem to have been originally cast in pairs. For a closely-related plaque bearing two war commanders side-by-side wearing nearly identical attire, with the eden sword in the right hand and the shield in the left, see Read (ibid.: fig. 4).