What: A shotel sword thought to belong to Werner Münzinger, British Consul during the time of the Abyssinian campaign

Where: The Royal Collection, Britain

The database entry has a picture and reads: “Sword (shotel) with a long, sickle-shaped, two-edged, steel blade with a prominent centre ridge and a wooden I-shaped hilt overlaid in silver, jewelled with carbuncles, with the inscription ‘Munzingee [Münzinger?] to Dillan. Abyssinia, 1868’. Plain leather scabbard covered with red velvet.”

Munzinger is likely to be Werner Münzinger (1832-1875), an explorer of East Africa and British Consul during the time of the Abyssinian campaign of 1868.

Provenance

“Recorded in the 1910 catalogue of Arms and Armour at Sandringham House with the note ‘Obtained during the British Expedition of 1867-6 (C. Purdon Clarke, Arms and Armour at Sandringham : The Indian Collection Presented by the Princes, Chiefs and Nobles of India to His Majesty King Edward VII, When Prince of Wales, on the Occasion of His Visit to India in 1875-1876; Also Some Asiatic, African and European Weapons and War-relics, no. 570)”