Edo Post Top with Equestrian Figure

A rider on a horse. In Benin, that meant something before it meant anything else.

Casting in brass and bronze was a guarded craft there, and the horseman belonged to the vocabulary of rank and the court. This 19th-century Edo post top puts a small rider squarely on his mount, above a broad flaring rim. Below, a vase-like body bristles with rows of knotted, rope-like projections, then settles into a ribbed lower section. Twenty-three inches of bronze. The deep brown patina has collected in every recess.

Give it a console and some distance. It likes to be looked up to.