Benin Plaques
- Gallery: Room 25
- Made in: Benin City
- Date: 16thC-17thC
- Object type: plaque
- Materials: brass; iron
- Museum number: Af1898,0115.31
- 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
"Benin Plaques" are striking brass reliefs cast using an ancient lost-wax technique. This plaque shows the Oba, the Benin king, in a powerful pose, holding two leopards by their tails. His mudfish legs—a symbol of divine kingship—frame the figure, and from his belt hang additional mudfish, reinforcing his sacred status. The Oba wears a richly detailed costume, including a beaded collar, a tunic, and a patterned skirt with pendant mask-like animal heads.
The plaque's background is ornamented with decorative river leaf patterns and stylized rosettes in the corners. Nail holes along the top and bottom suggest it once adorned a palace pillar, part of an ensemble that emphasized the majesty and spiritual authority of the Oba. Created in Benin City around the 16th to 17th centuries, these plaques reflect the height of Edo metalworking skills and the artistic sophistication of the Benin Kingdom.
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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