Armlet

This brass bracelet or armlet is modelled with four stylised mudfish designs. The mudfish is commonly offered as a sacrifice at shrines and is one of Olokun’s messengers. In the Edo pantheon Olokun is the god of the sea who brings fertility and wealth from across the ocean. The mudfish designs on this bracelet suggest that it might have been made for a priest or priestess of Olokun. Nothing is yet known about Mr G. F. Lawrence, who sold the bracelet to the museum in 1901.