Benin Plaques
- Gallery: Room 25
- Made in: Benin City
- Date: 16thC-17thC
- Object type: plaque
- Materials: brass
- Museum number: Af1898,0115.46
- 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.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This brass plaque was cast in Benin City during the 16th to 17th centuries using a sophisticated lost-wax technique. You're looking at a richly decorated scene featuring four page figures standing before an entrance marked by a high tiled roof and a turret with a twisting snake design. The plaque's surface is covered with intricate river leaf patterns and dots.
The central area features three steps with leopard figures seated at the top. Alongside them are four narrow columns each holding a figure. The two central figures, facing outward, wear elaborate hairstyles, beaded jewelry, and hold shields and spears in mirrored arrangements. Outer figures have long braids and hold leopard-skin fans.
These plaques once decorated the palace of the Oba, or king, and reflect the spiritual and political heart of the Benin Kingdom. Their craftsmanship and themes reveal daily life and ritual. Over 900 plaques survive today in museums and private collections worldwide.
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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