Royal Bust with Tiered Crown, Benin Court Style

Crowned busts and ornamented heads celebrate the splendour of courtly regalia: netted beaded caps, towering tiered crowns, coral collars and the ritual marks of rank.

Bronze has long been the language of power in West Africa. Cast by the lost-wax method — in which a model shaped in wax is encased in clay and replaced by molten metal — these works preserve with remarkable fidelity the faces, regalia and ceremonies of the courts that commissioned them.

A dignified half-length figure wears a majestic crown that rises in stepped tiers, each studded with rows of bead bosses and topped by a slender finial, with a crested ornament projecting from one side.

A thick collar of beads and coiled rosettes frames the neck, above a garment of finely netted beadwork hung with paired pendant plaques. Both forearms extend forward with clenched fists, as if once presenting regalia. A dark lustrous patina is enlivened by touches of green verdigris.