LOWER NIGER BRONZE

A group of bronze works whose traditions are peripheral to Igbo Ukwu, Ife and Benin has been identified by William Fagg and put under the rubric "Lower Niger Bronzes". Although some of the works have affinities to the styles of the great bronze centers mentioned above, they do not quite belong to them. They appear not to have one single origin and their provenance’s are vague. Perhaps it is best to leave them under this rubric until we are more certain of their origins.
Fagg includes the bronzes of Jebba and Tada in this category but it is preferred here to refer to them as Tsoede bronzes which have already been discussed. The other Lower Niger bronzes appear to have been made by various groups of people who received influences from the renowned centers and who mastered the technique of casting by the cire-perdue method.