Benin Bronze Casting

Casting at Benin is believed to date from at least the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, and the craft was organised under a palace guild, the Igun Eronmwon, whose quarter in Benin City still bears the name. Work was commissioned by the Oba and the court of the Benin Kingdom, and brass reached the city through trade, including European trade from the fifteenth century onwards. In 1897 a British punitive expedition attacked and burned Benin City, and thousands of objects were removed and dispersed to museums and private collections in Europe and North America. Casting continued in the city after 1897 and continues now. Efforts to secure the return of removed pieces have been under way for decades and remain ongoing across several countries and institutions.

The pieces are made by lost-wax casting. A core is modelled, covered in a detailed wax layer, encased in clay and heated so the wax runs out, leaving a cavity that molten brass or bronze fills; the mould is then broken away, so each cast is unique. Surfaces were finished by chasing and polishing, and the rectangular palace plaques were made to be fixed to pillars in the palace. Skills passed within guild families rather than through open training.

The casts were historical records as much as ornament: plaques showing the Oba, chiefs, warriors and court ritual documented events and rank, and commemorative heads were placed on ancestral altars for past Obas. Control of casting rested with the palace, so the art was inseparable from royal authority, and the guild's standing within the city reflected that.

The court that commissioned this work is covered on the Benin Kingdom page, the 1897 expedition sits within British colonisation and the scramble for Africa, and the technique itself is described more broadly in bronze and brass casting.