Lower Niger Bronzes: pendant-mask
- Gallery: Room 25
- Culture: Benin City
- Made in: Benin City (?)
- Date: 16thC - 19thC
- Object type: pendant-mask
- Materials: copper alloy; brass (?)
- Museum number: Af1962,13.1
- 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
In front of you is a small, intricate pendant-mask from the Lower Niger region. This object features a face with strikingly protruding eyes and three raised lines above a pierced mouth. The eyes are enhanced with iron pupils, a detail that is distinctively Benin in style. The mask’s headress extends forward, with ten decorative eyelets circling the chin.
This piece is part of the so-called Lower Niger Bronze Industry, a group of metal objects from southern Nigeria made before European contact, possibly as early as the 16th century. Though stylistically unique, the use of iron in the eyes and the presence of Bini tribal marks point to links with Benin.
The mask may have been worn around the neck rather than the hip, and combines features of Ife and Benin traditions. It was donated by Kathleen, Lady Epstein, as part of the collection of the British Museum in 1962.
See it in person
Lower Niger Bronzes: pendant-mask 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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