Cast brass or bronze female figure- the oba's wife. The figure is in a standing pose, with an object held in her right hand. She wears a dress, coral beaded hairstyle traditionally worn by the Oba's wives, coral necklaces and bracelets, Ezuzu fan.
Bronze figures like this one would have been placed on 'ancestral' altars in the Royal Palace in Ancient Benin. These altars would be used to help people communicate with their ancestral spirits. This figure appears to be a high ranking woman, as shown by the coral beads she is wearing and the fan that she carries which denotes royal status; the Oba owned all coral in Benin and would gift it to people in his court.
