Fred Benin Bronzes

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Fred Bronze Sculptures
Benin Bronze Sculptor
6th Generation Sculptor
  • Shop:
    4 Abeokuta Rd
  • City:
    Benin
  • State:
    Edo
Bronze
Brass
Silver
British Museum, London, UK
Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, Germany
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand
Historical Museum and the ethnographic museums of St Gallen, Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Zurich University
  • Certificate of Authenticity signed by me (Ebuwa Fred Ilhama)
  • Barcode on Certificate validating item
  • Worldwide shipping
See sample Certificate of Authenticity
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Benin Bronze Oba Head c-1882

$1,350

Benin Bronze Oba Head –

– This particular bronze bust is of the Benin king, Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, also called Overami, was the thirty-fifth Ọba of the Kingdom of Benin reigning from c. 1888 AD – c. 1897 AD, up until the British punitive expedition.

Dimensions (H) 40cm (W) 19cm (D) 14cm

Category:

Description

Benin Bronze Oba Head is my great-grandma’s collection.

Born circa 1857, he was the son of Ọba Adọlọ. He took the name Ovọnramwẹn Nọgbaisi at his enthronement in 1888. Every Ọba took a new name at his coronation, Ovọnramwẹn meaning “The Rising Sun” and Nọgbaisi meaning “which spreads over all”.

The British found it annoying that the Ọba had a monopoly on trade at the end of the 19th century, when the Kingdom of Benin had managed to hold onto its independence. The territory was coveted by an influential group of investors for its rich natural resources such as palm oil, rubber and ivory. Though Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi stands as the epitome of the Kingdom’s human exploitation, slavery was a major factor in Benin’s ascent to power.

The kingdom was largely independent of British control, and pressure continued from figures such as Vice-Consul James Robert Phillips and Captain Henry Gallwey (the British vice-Consul of Oil Rivers Protectorate) who were pushing for British annexation of the Benin Empire and the removal of the Ọba.

 

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