Portuguese knight Benin City

Armored Portuguese Knight, bronze from Benin (Edo State, Nigeria)

In the 16th century, Benin City became the main ally of Portuguese navigators in the Gulf of Guinea. Thanks to that alliance, the Edo kings, known as Obas, had access to bronze from European countries, and their artisans reproduced the figures of merchants and soldiers who came from the Iberian Peninsula with their clothing, weapons and straight hair.
The bronze presented at Black Market corresponds to a pendant with the equestrian figure of a Portuguese soldier from the late 16th or early 17th century with a beard and armed with a muzzle-loading pistol, dagger and morion.

Height: 23.0 cm; Width: 18.0cm; Weight: 1.50 Kg