What: A silver gilt cup engraved “King of Kings, Theodore”
Where: The Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL
The catalog entry describes: “Silver gilt cup with a beaded and fluted foot with filigree ornament, with a knop and similar ornament around the bowl, Abyssinia … Engraved “King of Kings, Theodore”
Museum number:
63-1870
What: A silver and gilded silver gauntlet, said to have belonged to Emperor Tewodros
Where: The Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL
The catalogue entry has three images and reads: “This arm defence was looted a British colonel after British troops stormed the Fortress of Magdala (Maqdala), Ethiopia, on 13 April 1868 to rescue foreign hostages held by the Emperor Tewodros. A note in the Museum register records that the object was ‘stated by the vendor to have been taken at the siege of Magdala, 1868, by Col. Macnaghten, Bombay Cavalry and to have been the property of King Theodore’. The V&A bought the armlet in 1922, for £12, from Mrs Louisa Macnaghten.”
Museum number:
M.140-1922
What: Cloth marked with figures in a series of squares, said to be from the emperor’s tent
Where: Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3PP
It is unclear whether this means it was part of the tent or taken out of the tent.
The catalogue entry says it was donated in 1886 by the sister-in-law of the anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor, who described the figures as “magical”
Annual Report 1886 Oxford University Museum of Natural History – ‘Donations to the University Museum The following is a List of the Donations which have been made to the University Museum, Oxford, during the year 1886:- … Anthropology … Cloth inscribed with Magical Figures in Squares, from the Tent of King Theodore of Abyssinia Mrs Tylor 22A Queen Anne’s Gate, London … Edward B. Tylor/ Keeper of the Museum
Related Documents File – Page handwritten in pencil by Edward Burnett Tylor with nine squares/matrices each with numbers written in the boxes within the squares. Next to some of these squares is a column of Tylor’s writing: ‘Arabic Magic Cloth from W. Alfred Tylor. Squares with numbers N will be seen from those given that they do no follow a magic rule, but they are blotted and indistinct and therefore only partly read correctly. Apparently by an inferior practitioner who wrote anything, but some ciphers are almost or quite absurd. EBT Feb 27 1895.’ [MOB 4/9/2001]
Detail
1886.13.1
What: Horn goblet, said to have belonged to Emperor Tewodros, taken during the storming of Magdala
Where: The National Museums of Scotland
Sources:
The museums’ online catalogue entry has two photographs and describes a “goblet of horn with fillet at lip and foot”.
National Museums of Scotland spreadsheet
Accession number: A.1893.209
Description: Goblet of horn with fillet at lip and foot: Eastern Africa, Ethiopia, said to have belonged to King Theodore, obtained at the Storming of Magdala, 1868
Acquisition source: Mackenzie, William Sir K. C.B., C.S.I., 1811 – 1893
What: Shirt said to have belonged to the emperor
Where: The Duke of Wellington’s Regimental Museum, Bankfield Museum, Boothtown Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 6HG
A shirt, apparently made out of a delicate mesh of reeds, popularly known as Theodore’s shirt, though there is no proof the emperor wore it.
What: A silver and gold communion cup, inscribed with Emperor Tewodros’ name, taken by the British Museum’s expert on the expedition, Richard Rivington Holmes
Where: The British Museum, Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG
Provenance: Maqdala mentioned at length in acquisition notes. Cup marked with Tewodros’s name.
The catalogue entry reads:
“Communion chalice made of silver and gilded with gold on the interior surface. The chalice has a wide circular base with a finely crenulated edge, a tall octagonal stem with three convex bands of moulding with wire work decoration and a crenulated rim with ge’ez inscription.”
Inscription Translation: This eucharist chalice for Jesus […] was given by Emperor Tewodros for the salvation of his body and soul.
Detail
Museum number: Af1868,1001.8
Field Collection by: Sir Richard Rivington Holmes biography
Acquisition date: 1868