48.   A bronze figure of a European soldier standing with a sword



Abeokuta, Nigeria

(early twentieth century)

height: 21cm

inscribed on an old label underneath '41'

These figures (nos.47 and 48) are from Abeokuta in Nigeria where bronze casting has been practised for centuries. There are similar figures representing figures in Christian iconography illustrated in J F Thiel and Heinz Helf, Christliche Kunst in Afrika, Berlin, 1984, pp.160-163 which are in the Lyon Museum of African Missionaries and accessioned in the 1920s.

© 2003 Michael Stevenson. All rights reserved.