What: Dagger and sheath linked to Magdala, but wrong date

Where: Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3PP

Magdala is mentioned several times in the records, but they also say the dagger was collected by Hubert Berkeley in 1866, two years before the battle.

The catalogue entry describes: “Dagger [.1] with single edged grooved blade inscribed ‘ANDREA I FERARA’ (partly illegible). The silver-mounted hilt is bound in shagreen. With tooled and stitched leather sheath [.2].”

Pitt Rivers Museum box label – Hunting sword. Blade inscribed? Andrea I Farara. Magdala, Abyssinia. Hubert Berkeley coll. d.d. W.E. Berkeley. 1945.6.7 [LM 24/10/2007]

Related Documents File – 1945.6.1 contains a series of letters relating to the donation of Hubert Berkeley’s collection to the PRM. The first is dated 21/1/43, from W.E. Berkeley to Beatrice Blackwood, and mentions ‘trophies’ left to him by his brother, Hubert, that had been “hanging in our house Bruton Manor for the past twenty years”, as well as additional items Hubert had had at another location [illegible, Ch…jah?].

Detail:
1945.6.7 .1 1945.6.7 .2