Benin brass plaques
Placas de latón de Benín
- Date
- c. 1550 · confidence medium
- Place
- Benin City, Edo, Nigeria
- Credited to
- Igun Eronmwon guild of bronze casters (Kingdom of Benin)
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
About 900 brass plaques cast by the lost-wax method, narrating the court's history and decorating the pillars of the royal palace. They are a visual archive of the kingdom.
The brass came largely from Portuguese manillas; isotopic analysis (2023) points to the Rhineland as the source of the metal.
What it led to
- a historical record of the Benin court
- hereditary guilds of bronze casters
- debate over restitution following the British looting of 1897