Benin Plaques
- Gallery: Room 25
- Made in: Benin City
- Date: 16thC-17thC
- Object type: plaque
- Materials: brass; iron
- Museum number: Af1898,0115.80
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
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About this object
Before you is a brass relief plaque from Benin City, West Africa. The piece is decorated with a textured river leaf pattern and shows two leopard hunters standing side by side. Each figure wears a detailed helmet with a chin strap, a wrapped skirt, and a bracer on their left arm. They carry bundles of large arrows and bows, with a quiver hanging at their side.
The hunter on the right holds an additional arrow in his right hand. In front of them lie two bound and muzzled leopards in profile, and at the hunters’ feet is a third leopard’s head. These figures reflect the high status of hunters in Benin society.
Cast in brass using the lost-wax method, this plaque was likely part of the decoration in the royal palace, fixed to wooden pillars in courtyard galleries. Created between the 16th and 17th centuries, such plaques offer a rare, vivid glimpse into Benin court life.
They were made by Edo artisans and are an example of the renowned royal art of Benin City.
See it in person
Benin Plaques is on display in Room 25 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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