The Briggs Enigma is a pillar carved with four figures that was donated to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

by Sir

Augustus Wollaston Franks Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (20 March 182621 May 1897) was a British antiquarian and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of ...

in 1879. The statue was found on one of Sir Thomas Graham Briggs' estates on the island of

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

, in the Caribbean. It is made of grey sandstone, which is not found on Nevis. It is rectangular in cross-section and is about a metre high. It shows four women standing together with their backs to each other. Between each pair of their thighs is a small head. The women have long curly hair, which is neither African nor American Indian.''Swords, Ships & Sugar: History of Nevis'' by Vincent Hubbard, Premiere Editions Internationale, Oregon, 1996 The pillar was part of a large collection offered for sale in late 1889, after Briggs' death; it was acquired by Franks and donated to the museum. The statue is currently held by the British Museum.

References

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External links

Object reference: Am,+.4419
British Museum database entry with photograph Ethnographic objects in the British Museum Artefacts from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in the British Museum History of Saint Kitts and Nevis Sculptures in the British Museum Saint Kitts and Nevis–United Kingdom relations