Rattle Staff; Ukhurhe

Rattle staffs are sacred ceremonial items made for ancestral altars. Like bells, the rattle staffs may be used to draw the attention of ancestral spirits, or announce their presence. However, this staff, like 51.120.36 and 51.120.37, seems to have been made as part of the model of an Edo royal altar created for a display in the Nigerian Pavillion at the 1924-1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. The rattle staff was presented to World Museum by the trustees of the Wellcome Collection in 1951 via the British Museum.