Benin Plaques
- Gallery: Room 25
- Made in: Benin City
- Date: 16thC-17thC
- Object type: plaque
- Materials: brass
- Museum number: Af1898,0115.92
- 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
Before you is a brass relief plaque from Benin City, made by the Edo people sometime between the 16th and 17th centuries. The plaque shows two courtiers, standing proudly in richly patterned ceremonial dress. They hold swords in the air and wear beaded caps and capes decorated with leopard teeth.
The plaque was cast using the intricate lost-wax method, a highly advanced technique for the time. The background is filled with decorative patterns, including river leaves and small dots. At the top and bottom of the plaque are nail holes, suggesting it was once mounted as part of a larger display—perhaps attached to palace pillars.
These plaques once lined the royal palace of the Oba, or king. They offer a rare, detailed look into the grandeur of Benin court life and are considered among the finest examples of Benin metalwork.
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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