Nigeria
Igbo-Ukwu

Bronze bell / lost wax casting
ca. 15th to 19th century
Height:  11.25 inches
Idiophone-Struck Directly – Metal Bell

A very old bell cast in copper alloy with a looped strap handle and a spherical clapper hung from a chain inside.  It was cast by the lost-wax method and is attributed by scholars to the ‘Lower Niger Bronze Industry’ style, an interim designation coined by William Fagg in 1959. An associated ethnic name is Igbo-Ukwu. This conical bell is in the shape of a human (male) head with bulging eyes, flared back nostrils, a heavy brow line, protruding lips, with straight lines of scarification radiating across the face, and depictions of frogs encircling below the face, on the neck.  It may have been part of a shrine’s paraphernalia.  [Many of the bronze sculptures were produced to express the respect to elites.]

According to the British Museum (Mellon Foundation, Grant # G-40900619):  “The Lower Niger Bronzes is an umbrella term used to classify a variety of copper-alloy objects that are distinct from the three major known metal casting centers of southern Nigeria, namely Benin, Ife and Igbo-Ukwu, which developed from the 9–15th century. These objects have previously seen little analysis and there is only limited information relating to their collection history and provenance.”

The discovery of the Igbo-Ukwu bronzes was accidental, found in 1938 when a man tried to dig a water cistern in his compound in a village called Igbo-Ukwu- Anambra State Nigeria. Upon scientific excavation of the site in 1959, radiocarbon dating placed the site to 850 CE, which could make the Igbo-Ukwu culture the earliest known example of bronze casting in the region. These Igbo-Ukwu bronzes also represent the earliest examples of copper alloy (copper and tin) art in Sub-Saharan Africa. The people of Ibgo-Ukwu were likely among the first groups of West Africans to use the lost wax hollow casting technique, also known as cire perdue, to produce these bronze sculptures. 

Resource: Apley, Alice (October 2001). “Igbo–Ukwu (ca. 9th century)”. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved December 15, 2014.;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology_of_Igbo-Ukwu;  https://artafricamagazine.org/ ; https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/projects/lower-niger-bronzes-scientific-research