ANTIQUE WORKS OF ART FROM BENIN.
Privately Printed, 1900.
Hardcover. Very good. Item #53908
Quarto. 12.5" x 10.25" 100pp. plus 50 plates illustrating 389 works, collected by Pitt Rivers. Each piece described. Blue cloth with decorative gilt stamping shows light wear. t.e.g. Coated paper end-papers. Front hinge a bit tender, cracking just a little. Light foxing to fore-edge with an occasional spot within. Title page a toned. Very nice early book on Benin Art.
"Pitt Rivers was a soldier and archaeologist, hugely influential in the development of modern archaeology...He began carrying out excavations while still serving in the army, but his chance to indulge in excavation on a grand scale came in 1880 when he inherited the 27,000 acre Cranborne Chase estate in Dorset, which contained many archaeological sites. He had a meticulous approach to excavation and was interested in recording all the finds on a given site - not just the most spectacular - as well as their contexts. He kept detailed records of the position of all finds and of the excavation in general...his ethnographical collections form the basis of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
Price: $300.00