1988.472: Hand-held Clapper with Bird of Prophecy
Sculpture
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1988.472
- People
-
Unidentified Artist
- Title
- Hand-held Clapper with Bird of Prophecy
- Other Titles
- Alternate Title: Bird on a staff
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture, statue
- Date
- 17th-18th century
- Places
- Creation Place: Africa, Nigeria, Benin City
- Culture
- Edo
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/226425
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Bronze
- Technique
- Cast, lost-wax process
- Dimensions
- 30.2 x 12.1 x 8.9 cm (11 7/8 x 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
The royal palace, Benin City; probably taken by British forces during the Punitive Expedition, 1897. Lois Dailey Orswell, Pomfret Center, CT, by 1972, gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1988
The bronze, ivory and wooden artworks broadly known as the “Benin Bronzes” were taken from Benin City as part of the British Punitive Expedition of 1897 and dispersed to private collections and museums around the world. The Harvard Art Museums acknowledge the violence and trauma of the Expedition and understand that the presence of this cultural material in Western museums is experienced as continued injustice by descendent communities.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, The Lois Orswell Collection
- Accession Year
- 1988
- Object Number
- 1988.472
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
Descriptions
- Description
- This work is one of the bronze, ivory and wooden artworks broadly known as the “Benin Bronzes."
Publication History
- Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 283, fig. 55, pp. 112-115, 359
Exhibition History
- Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
- Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu