Ceremonial Rattle

Sotheby’s: “...well-carved human head, with typical protruding features and a notched coiffure, incised bands around the lower part and with an ivory clapper held in place with an ivory peg.”

Recently this item, along with other items designated as being potentially associated with the Kingdom of Benin, was presented to the Digital Benin Project, whose goal is to “bring together photographs, oral histories, and rich documentation material from collections worldwide to provide a long-requested overview of the royal artworks looted in the 19th century." The Digital Benin project was developed in close cooperation with the Benin Dialogue Group, which includes the Royal Court of Benin, the Edo State Government, the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Nigeria and all European museums with important Benin collections. This item was not accepted to be part of the project due to new research related to time period, tribe, culture, and/or country of this item provided by the scholars leading the project. We continue to research our collections specifically for items that may have been unethically removed from their places of origin. ​We will attempt to return all items found to be unethically sourced.

Met. Museum of Art 1991.17.117, an ivory tapper.

Sotheby’s. Catalog for sale of June 23, 1981. p. 95, lot 134. {photocopy]