Description

Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., Illustrated Catalogue Number 8991, for auction held 16th June 1980 of Benein Works of Art from the property of a European Private Collector. Hardcover, 67 pp. Contents include introduction by Philip J. C. Dark, detailed descriptions, photos (many in color), and exhibition history for 24 important pieces of Benin Art, bibliography. Good+ in good+ dust jacket. Green Paper over Boards with black lettering have bumping to top of spine with some corresponding light creasing to the top corner of the text block. light overall scuffing and aging to covers as well. Binding tight. Pages lightly aged but otherwise unmarked. Dust jacket has several 1" or less nicks and tears and creasing along edges Moderate scuffing, fading and discoloring to jacket as well. Now in an archival-quality Brodart Cover NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. [From introduction] The fame of Benin today in the world at large is in good part dependent on the bronze castings and ivory carvings which were produced by the artists of Benin City, in Southern Nigeria, and which are, to a considerable extent today, located outside Nigeria. Some early European travellers to West Africa found their way to Benin and left records of some of the things they saw and heard. The kingdom of Benin, at certain periods, was much larger than it is today. The King of Benin at one time held sway as far off as the country of Benin, formerly Dahomey, to the west and much further to the east, to the Niger, than today. Lagos recognised the King of Benin's suzerainty until relatively recently in the last century. The kingdom of Benin was politically centralised, all temporal power resting with the Oba, (the King) and sanctioned supernaturally. He had complete rights over the life and death of his subjects. For six hundred years or more the skill of the Bini craftsmen was applied to producing works of art largely for the Oba. Benin art was a court art. Ninety per cent of the justly famed products of the brass-smiths' skill were intended for the Oba. The Oba's rights over ivory (see Lots 19-24) ensured that much of the carvers' skills were expressed in forms for his use. One of the world's great expressions of art did however remain unknown outside Nigeria until a contretemps occurred between the Oba of Benin and the Vice Consul of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, leading to the mounting of a punitive expedition by the British against the Oba in 1897. As a result, the art treasures of Benin found their way to England as the spoils of war. While many of them stayed in collections in England, many became dispersed to museums and private collections in Europe and the U.S.A. (vide Dark, 1962). From the end of the last century, through the activities of dealers such as W. D. Webster, and the attention given these works of art by scholars such as Read and Dalton (1899), Pitt Rivers (1900), Roth (1903) and von Luschan (1919), the fame of Benin art spread and attracted the connoisseur and collector. But the real increase in interest in Benin art occurred after the Second World War as the scale of the world contracted and people became concerned with the wider world around them. It was in 1954 that the vendor started assembling his collection. He had an eye for fine pieces and was particularly interested in establishing the historical context of his collection through study of the literature. The collection (which has been widely exhibited and published) includes a wide range of examples of the artistic expression of the Bini craftsmen both in the pieces themselves and the details to be found on the elaborate specimens, such as the five-figure plaque, the ivory double bell and the ivory tusk.