Bénin à Boston 85 FIG. 9: Pectoral with two officials. Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria. 16th–17th century. Copper alloy. H: 31.1 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Robert Owen Lehman Collection. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. bronze, the forehead decorated with two inlaid bands and four raised cicatrices (tribal marks) over each eye. The pupils of the eyes inlaid apparently with iron, coral necklace, a badge of rank. The metal is very thin, being only 1 mm. in thickness. The hair in conventional bands of ridges; ears unusually well formed.”25 It went on display in case 73 in Room VII of the museum in Farnham, and well into the 1930s its label quoted this passage from the Pitt-Rivers book.26 A “BATTLE MASTER” PLAQUE Together with this remarkable head, Pitt-Rivers also purchased from Burrows a bronze relief plaque of a dynamic battle scene (fig. 8).27 It is one of fifteen relief plaques in the Robert Owen Lehman Collection, which includes seven from Pitt-Rivers’ Second Collection. According to oral tradition in Benin and observations by foreign visitors to the Benin palace, Oba Esigie was the FIG. 10 (left): Staff showing a military commander on horseback. Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria. Late 16th century. Ivory. H: 40.6 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Robert Owen Lehman Collection. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. FIG. 11 (right): Relief plaque showing a dignitary with drum and two attendants striking gongs. Edo peoples, Benin kingdom, Nigeria. 16th–17th century. Copper alloy. H: 43.2 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Robert Owen Lehman Collection. Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
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