Photograph Album
Unit
W. D. Webster photograph album
Institution
British Museum
Date
January 1, 1898 to December 31, 1899
Actors
Source actors
Webster, William Downing
Mentioned actors
Museum der Kulturen, Basel
Taphouse, Thomas William
Pitt-Rivers (Lane Fox), Augustus Henry
Loading PDF

Edo designations mentioned

1 items
Ẹroro
Ẹroro
Related english designations
Bell
Previous document
Next document
An archival document representing a Photograph Album of 2 page(s)
Photograph Album
British Museum
W. D. Webster photograph album
Date
January 1, 1898 to December 31, 1899
An archival document representing a Photograph Album of 2 page(s)
Photograph Album
British Museum
W. D. Webster photograph album
Date
January 1, 1898 to December 31, 1899

Institution data

Institution fieldValue
Reg No.
Af,A154.49
PRN
EPF11251
Add ID/s
6383 (William Webster number)~6385 (William Webster number)~6440 (William Webster number)~6864-9 (William Webster numbers)~6870-9 (William Webster numbers)
Bibliography
King & Waterfield 2006: ~Webster 1898-9: Cat.21, figs.94-112~Pitt-Rivers 1900: Pl.45, fig.347 (Webster number 102)
Title/s
Benin Bronzes and Ivories (Series)
Object Name/s
photographic print (black and white)~album
Material/s
paper
Technique/s
photographic process
Description (full)
Photograph (black and white); mounted on card, part of a bound album. View of nineteen brass bells. Photographic process.
Dimension/s
Height: 24.00 cm (page)~Width: 27.40 cm (page)
Subject/s
Previous Owner
Previous owner/ex-collection: William Downing Webster
Date/s
1898-1899 (circa)
Prod. Place/s
Photographed in: London
Assoc. Ethnic Name/s
Associated with: Edo
Assoc. Place/s
Associated with: Benin City
Assoc. Event/s
Associated Event: British to Benin City - 1897
Inscription/s
Inscription:~ Inscription details: inscription (front of mount; below photograph) in English~ Inscription quoted: 94. 25.0. 95. 40.0. 96. 20.0. 97. 20.0. 98. 50.0 Dresden Museum. 99. 40.0. 100. 10.0. Dresden Museum. 101. 15.0. 102. 80.0. Gen Pitt Rivers. 103. 40.0. Taphouse. Oxford. 104. 70.0. 105. 80.0. Basel Museum. 106. 70.0. 107. 60.0. 108. 45.0. 109. 40.0. 110. 50.0. Leiden Museum. 111. 40.0. 112. 40.0.~ Inscription note: Handwritten in black ink. Description of objects from the Kingdom of Benin, with indicative purchase prices and names of some vendors.
Curator's Comment/s
This album contains photographs of objects from the Kingdom of Benin, Nigeria sold by the London-based dealer, William Downing Webster. Many of the photographs are annotated with information relating to the vendor/s and some include purchase prices. It is likely that the photographic series was compiled by Webster in the early 1900s. The objects depicted in this photograph were sold by William Webster as follows: 94. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89736. 95. unknown. 96. unknown. 97. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89739. 98. to Arthur Baessler in 1899. Donated by Baessler in same year to the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony - Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden. Accession number: 16102. 99. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89722. 100. unknown. 101. unknown. 102. to General Augustus Pitt Rivers by 1900. 103. unknown. 104. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89743. 105. to the Musuem der Kulturen, Basel in 1899. Accession number: III 1040. 106. to Arthur Baessler in 1902. Donated by Baessler in same year to the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony - Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden. Accession number: 13603. 107. unknown. 108. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89731. 109. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number 89738. 110. to the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen and Wereldmuseum, Leiden in 1900. Accession number: RV-1243-12. 111. unknown. 112. to the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 1905. Accession number: 89733.
URL
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/EA_Af-A154-49
Sensitive Content

Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here