Unusual carved ivory hunting horn, defined by its singular characteristics within a western African production context.Dating from the 17th century, and carved from an elephant tusk, it was probably made for local use, albeit featuring significant European influence arising from the contacts between the Portuguese and the western African peoples, from the 15th century onwards . It is, nonetheless, impossible to exclude that it might reflect a specific commission from a more modest traveller, and that its individuality resulted from the customer specifications, given that, its unique characteristics, distance it from others for local use or for exporting.Of evident decorative restraint, it is defined by a plain faceted body of octagonal section, featuring a trapezoid suspension ring towards the middle of the concave arch, and three prominent juxtaposed bands circumscribing the simulated mouthpiece, whose tip is simply decorated with incised zigzagging lines. The outer convex face is pierced with two small orifices for blowing.The ivory’s yellow shade is intersected, towards the campanula, by a light coloured band of well-defined boundaries – revealing the translucent qualities of the material – that indicate the previous existence of an applied element, perhaps in leather or other material, that jointly with the suspension ring and the three raised bands, would complete the suspension system related to the object’s use as a hunting horn, or as a musical, or sound emitting, instrument.Luso-African ivories are generally defined by profusely carved decoration, of European formal character and iconographic motifs, mainly Portuguese, combined with African elements. They are consensually attributed to two large production centres – the ancient Sierra Leone and the Kingdom of Benin, in the territory of modern day Nigeria. As for the oliphant’s from the Kingdom of Congo, the evidence for Euro-African miscegenation has raised some doubts amongst specialists, and those from Ghana, a recently identified production centre , seem to have been made for exclusive African use, as were those from Begho and Calabar, and with no connection with the Europeans.In general, the horn’s morphology allows for the identification of its origin. A decisive factor for differentiating between hunting horns and oliphants – European commissioned horns – is the location of the blowing opening which, in local cultures, is always found towards the side of the tusk, either on the inner or on the outer curved surface. In the case of oliphants, the mouthpiece is apical, hence found at the horn’s narrower end. The setting of the blowing orifice is distinctive in each production origin. In the case of the mpungi from Congo, it is featured on the concave surface and ogive shaped, whereas in the akohen from the Kingdom of Benin, the mouthpiece is rectangular and found in the convex curve, as it is in Edo-Portuguese oliphants for exporting. In Sierra Leone’s pieces commissioned by the Portuguese, it is placed at the horn’s end, in the European manner.The hunting horn described does not feature an apical orifice, although it simulates it. It does however remit to Sapi-Portuguese oliphants, due to its suspension ring in the concave surface, in similar fashion to others from that production centre, although in such horns the rings appear in larger numbers. This detail – the only characteristic that might suggest European influence, and which is never present in traditional African oliphants – has been referred as a distinctive feature in the identification of these objects, particularly in relation to horns from the Kingdom of Congo. Blowing orifices placed on the horns’ convex surfaces have been identified in hunting horns and oliphants from the Kingdom of Benin, both for local use and for exporting. This feature was exclusive to this ancient Kingdom, located in modern day Nigeria, and to other kingdoms and peoples under its control, and are not found in horns produced elsewhere. In relation to the octagonal faceted shape, it can be found in horns from Ghana, but with differing characteristics and more accentuated than in this example.Mentioned in Medieval Europe, as well as in earlier societies such as Hebrew, Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Teutonic, Celt, and even by Greeks and Romans, oliphants represented a means of communicating and motivating, be it in battle, in religious rituals or in crusades. Others, smaller sized, were also used in hunts or simply as display objects. Portuguese written records do also refer these instruments, namely in a note by the chronicler Rui de Pina, in the 1492 ‘Relação sobre o Reino do Congo’, and in the ‘Crónica de D.João II’, in which he describes that the embassy sent to the King of Congo in 1491, was greeted with “many ivory horns and drums”. A “small ivory horn” is also listed in the inventory of Álvaro Borges (1507), Capitan of the Island of São Tomé, a strategic point for commercial exchanges with western and central Africa. Regarding the Kingdom of Benin, mid-17th century Capuchin missionaries described Edo practices, mentioning the use of ivory flutes and horns. Recounting ritual parades and processions close to the Oba palace, Father Filippo de Hijar referred ‘ivory flutes’ players in the musical accompaniment. Additionally, a contemporary Dutch merchant reported, amongst other curious details, that the Oba’s servants played ‘horns and flutes’. Depictions of similar instruments do also appear in Portuguese paintings from the 1500s, namely in “The Marriage of Saint Ursula with Prince Conan” (Saint Auta altarpiece, MNAA, 1522-1525), in which African musicians play various wind instruments in a gallery (Fig. 2), as was customary in Portuguese courtly occasions marking solemn events or ceremonies. Two African horns from the collection Settala (Milan, 1666), captioned “elephant tooth made for playing, used in the Kingdom of Congo for being played in the presence of the king”, were also illustrated (…)”. These objects, produced in various centres of Sub-Saharan Africa, assumed various roles that were reinforced by the relevance and the symbolism of the ivory. Highly elaborate pieces revealed the importance of the orderer, such as those featuring the Portuguese armorial shield, or King Manuel I coat of arms. In Benin, horns were associated to military, ceremonial, and ritual aspects, as well as to the Oba. Destined to glorifying the ruler, the sounds they released conveyed his power, while the whiteness of the ivory was a token of the wealth, strength, and purity of the king himself. In light of the hybrid structure of this horn and considering the placing of the blow openings on the instrument’s convex surface, a prerogative of Benin horns, it is possible to consider this as its likely provenance, albeit the fact that Benin’s mouthpieces were usually rectangular. In addition to that, another curious detail reinforces the singular and “mixed” character of this horn – the evident similarity with 17th century European horns (cornetto, in Italian), with blowing openings and octagonal shaped, and featuring a slotting mouthpiece.Characterised by interesting formal stylization, our uncommon instrument seems to fit both the for-exporting and the local production, while incorporating formal European contributes. By changing geographic contexts, these objects have certainly acquired multiple (re)significations. As such, it is likely that overlapping of more complex interpretations in the analyses of these ivory objects, does also exist.