A lost-wax cast cover plate, most probably representing a wa - Lot 69

A lost-wax cast cover plate, most probably representing a war chief or emissary, and in any case an important dignitary of the royal court, wearing the superimposed necklaces of long coral beads and a necklace of upturned leopard teeth, characteristic attributes of the court of the Oba, reigning (or king) of the ancient Kingdom of Benin. He wears a high cap adorned with a feather, holds a ceremonial sword called an eben in his right hand, and his loincloth tied at the side features a two-cross motif. This cross motif may have come from the Christian influence that arrived with the first Portuguese merchants, whose trade began at the end of the 15th century, and the first converts to Christianity in the 16th century. It was these same Portuguese merchants who, in the 16th century supplied the Oba's court in the 16th century with the metal ingots that were later cast into works of art. The total corpus of these rectangular plaques is estimated at around nine hundred to one thousand, originally covering the pillars supporting the roof of the Oba's palace, and decorating the inner courtyard of the royal palace in Benin City. These plaques, dating from the 16th to 18th centuries, were already missing from the suspension posts inside the courtyard of the Oba's palace during the disastrous "punitive expedition" of 1897. The British soldiers who looted several thousand objects from the palace, then burned them, found them stored away. The engraved four-leaf motif found consistently as background decoration on all these plates evokes an aquatic plant with protective and curative virtues, used in therapeutic rites by an Olokun priestess (God of water). The plaque from the Evrard de Rouvre collection, presented on a base designed by Kichizo Inagaki, was already described by Jean Roudillon in 1955 as "a very fine example of this type of plaque". seventy years later, we can confirm this. Ancient kingdom of Benin, Edo population, Nigeria Late 16th or 17th century Copper alloy, minor age-related accidents and dents, otherwise excellent state of preservation. very fine oxidized patina. H. 44 cm Provenance : - Hôtel Drouot sale March 11, 1955, Maîtres Rheims et Boisgirard, reproduced in the catalog, plate XV no. 611 from the catalog of the famous sale of March 9, 10 and 11 of the collection André Derain et à divers amateurs. - Collection Evrard de Rouvre, acquired at this sale - Passed on by descent