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Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)
Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)
Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)

Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.58.160_print_front_bw.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.58.160_print_front_bw.jpg)

Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_detail_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_detail_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_side_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_side_acetate_bw.jpg)

Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.58.160_inscription.jpg)

Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: , CUR.58.160_inscription.jpg)

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Double Bell (Egogo)

Arts of Africa

This is one of the oldest surviving African ivory sculptures; only six of these ivory gongs are known. Double gongs were used by the oba (king) during the Emobo ceremony to drive away evil spirits. The carving here depicts the oba, supported by his military commander and his heir.
CULTURE Edo
MEDIUM Ivory
  • Place Made: Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria
    • DATES early 16th century
    DIMENSIONS 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm)  (show scale)
    INSCRIPTIONS Written in black ink on inside of bell: "BENIN. BT. OF MR H. LING ROTH. 1898."; written in red ink on inside of bell: "58.160"
    COLLECTIONS Arts of Africa
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    EXHIBITIONS
    ACCESSION NUMBER 58.160
    CREDIT LINE A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    CAPTION Edo. Double Bell (Egogo), early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 58.160_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Two bell forms on a long handle; large bell carved with 3 figures: chief standing with arms upheld by attendants; background is elaborately carved with curved interlocking pattern, small bells or facsimiles of same run-up sides of sisturn and along top; one side of top has projecting human figure, on top of small bell is an alligator head holding a human hand. Base is geometrically carved. Large bell originally showed mudfish figure and snake-wing bird.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
    Edo. <em>Double Bell (Egogo)</em>, early 16th century. Ivory, 14 1/8 × 3 15/16 × 2 9/16 in. (35.8 × 10 × 6.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund and Frank L. Babbott Fund, 58.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.160_SL1.jpg)

    TAGS

    African
    bell
    Benin
    Bini
    costumes
    Court
    Crocodile
    Double Bell
    early 16th century
    Egogo
    Ivory
    King
    leadership
    Nigeria
    Oba
    Officials
    Olokun
    Prized
    Purity
    Snake
    teste
    Valued

    TAGS

    African
    bell
    Benin
    Bini
    costumes
    Court
    Crocodile
    Double Bell
    early 16th century
    Egogo
    Ivory
    King
    leadership
    Nigeria
    Oba
    Officials
    Olokun
    Prized
    Purity
    Snake
    teste
    Valued
    + Add Tag

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