BENIN CONTENT

Some ninety per cent of Benin works are in bronze, the rest in ivory, terracotta and wood. William Fagg has pointed out that the early bronze heads were comparatively thinner than the later ones, because the supply of copper did not become plentiful until the arrival of the Portuguese. Then the heads became heavier, more stylized and flamboyant. The subject matter ranged from memorial heads of their kings, to figures of noblemen and warriors. Memorial plaques were made in rectangular form to record life and events in the court. Altar pieces were made to represent the cult of the hand (Ikengobo), a symbol of achievement. Ritual stools and animals (leopards and rams) in the form of aquamaniles used during ritual ablutions were also made. Decorative objects with no apparent use were cast, perhaps simply to embellish the altars. The queen mother and her altar piece (a bronze cock) were also favorite subjects. Small plaques and masks were cast and used as neck and hip pendants.
Among the carved ivory objects were gongs used by the king at certain rites, leopards for altar decoration, masks in the form of human faces for neck and hip pendants, small plaques representing the king and his attendants which were worn as pendants and figures of women holding bowls. Elephant tusks presumably mostly belonged to the Oba, so he could order relief carvings on them which depicted him and his courtiers in many aspects. There were also bead works, mostly of coral, of which the king had the greatest quantity.
The wood carvers on the other hand, were probably the oddest guide to work for the Oba. They made wooden memorial heads for him before these were eventually replaced by the bronze heads. But the wooden memorial heads were not restricted to the palace, for they used as memorials to the ancestors of chiefs in place of bronze heads which were exclusively used at the royal court. The wood carvers made carved wooden chests for the storage of regalia. They also commissioned staffs which incorporate rattles (uxurhe), which every first born son was obliged to place at the shrine of his father before inheriting his property.

Benin Culture