Three figures, Brass, Nigeria
place: label: Place
content: Africa
label: Place
content: Nigeria
label: Place
content: Brass (Nigeria)
topic: label: Topic
content: Ancestor worship
label: Topic
content: statues
setName: label: See more items in
content: West African photographs
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Also appears as a lithograph in The Church Missionary Gleaner., 1889, page 41 and 43, with the caption, "idols of the late King Ockiya, given by him to Bishop Crowther, who sent them to the C.M. House, where they now are."
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Print (albumen., b&w, 15 x 21 cm.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: [ca. 1880]
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Purchased, 1995.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: EEPA.1995-017, Item EEPA 1995-170083
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Prints
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Group of three figures representing ancestral images of King Ockiya of Brass, Nigeria, ca. late 1870s. Accompanying inscription reads, "Benin Gods." Photographer is likely Sir Henry H. Johnston. The center figure is from the court of King Ockiya of Brass, who was the head of the trading house at the port in the Niger Delta. 

In 1877, reportedly to mark the royal family's conversion to Christianity, the Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (the first African bishop of the Church Missionary Society) removed these three figures to England rather than destroying it. The middle figure was then sold several times before being gifted to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, in 1965 by Bernard J. Reis. View the catalog record.