The Kingdom of Benin produced some of the finest artists and craftsmen in the history of the African continent. Yet this heritage was scarcely recognised until the British punitive expedition of AD 1897, which destroyed and looted the ancient city compounds and in so doing brought the achievements of Benin to the world’s attention. The foundation of the Benin peoples was contemporary with the European late mediaeval period, when the kingdom of Benin was founded by a descendent of an Ife king in c. AD 1180. In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries AD, the power of the empire stretched across most of West Africa, and those areas not under their control were indirectly influenced by the effect of their trade networks and artistic achievements. Until the late Nineteenth Century AD, the Benin centres were a ruling power in Nigeria, dominating trade routes and amassing enormous wealth as the military and economic leaders of their ancient empire.

Benin art was designed to venerate the achievements and/or memory of the Obas, the divine rulers of the Benin polities. Benin work in bronze and copper, ironworking and sculpting in a range of materials that particularly included ivory was extremely refined and effective; indeed, smelting, forging and cire perdue (lost wax) metalworking methods exceeded any seen in Europe until the Nineteenth Century AD. The palace walls were decorated with ornate metal plaques, while dead Obas were honoured by erecting commemorative altars, framed by elephant tusks mounted in brass heads, and further decorated with brass leopards, spears, statues, tableaux (depicting the Oba and his followers) and rattle-staffs (ukhurhe). Perhaps the most unusual items to grace the kingly altars were the bells, which were rung in order to awaken the spirits.

This beautiful throne testifies to the artistic refinement of the artisans of Benin during the early Twentieth Century AD, a period of 'renaissance' in the art of Benin after the British punitive expedition of AD 1897. In the early Twentieth Century AD, under the reign of the Oba Eweka II, the Benin Arts and Crafts School was established, providing a new focal point for the transmission of the cultural heritage of the Kingdom to new generations and ensuring the survival of the rich artistic traditions of Benin. The iconography of the throne naturally embodies continuity, bearing some of the most meaningful and quintessential representations in the traditional artistic repertoire of Benin.

The back of the throne represents an Oba with two supporters (attendants), a specific iconography related to the annual apparition of the Oba outside the palace, when he presented himself to his people flanked by attendants. This particular ceremonial is attested since at least the Seventeenth Century AD.

The seat of the chair bears the representation of an ancestral altar: a head of an Oba or king, cylindrical in form, with a tusk protruding from the top and two carved tusks on the bottom and flanked by attendants or priests. The head is decorated with a lattice-pattern cap representing woven coral beads. Among the Edo peoples of Benin, the head represents the character and destiny of the individual, and freestanding heads like the one represented here were placed on the shrines as symbols of the qualities and leadership of the previous ruler. Together with carved tusks, staffs and other artefacts, they served as the focal point for a living monarch's communication with his ancestor. This practice was a powerful reminder of the legitimacy and longevity of the ruling dynasty, thus the presence of the representation of an ancestral altar on the throne is of great relevance and interest.

Heads of Obas form also the the supports of the armrests of the throne, again providing a powerful visual reminder of the legitimacy and longevity of the ruling dynasty and of the ruler sat on the throne.