The Prince and the Plunder

A book on how Britain took one boy and piles of treasures from Ethiopia

Tag: Ethnological Museum – Berlin

The Berlin cloak, sold by one of the missionaries *

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What: A cloak made of silk, gold, silver and cotton

Where: The Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Takustraße 40, 14195 Berlin, Germany

This appears to be at one of a group of similar robes, cloaks or mantles from Magdala currently split up in the store rooms of The British Museum, The Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and The Ethnological Museum of Berlin. See the ones we have tracked down here.

The Berlin database entry, which has several detailed images, gives details on the collection and suggests Emperor Tewodros initially commissioned them to send as presents to Queen Victoria:

“see. Acting procedure E 701/1868, sheet 2:
The Vice-Consul of the North German Confederation, Nerenz, writes from Cairo on June 19, 1868 to the Chancellor of the North German Confederation, Bismarck, and gives the advice, objects that the missionaries Ch. F. Bender, Th. Waldmeier, and J. Mayer from Ethiopia brought with them , for the ethnogr. and hist. to acquire collections. Things:
1. the tent of King Theodoros (Waldmeier);
2. a saddle of King Theodoros (Bender);
3. a lady’s coat (Mayer). An Abyssinian so-called queen’s mantle (worn) of silk fabric, colorfully embroidered at both edges and richly hung with silver dangles and cords. On the shoulders and on the back there are two large rosettes each of precious filigree work. At the front the coat is closed by a big silver lock, also with filigree of excellent work. The owner J. Mayer demands 300 Maria Theresien = Thaler.
As for the authenticity of the aforesaid objects, it seems certain, since it is notorious that the three missionaries mentioned were in the immediate vicinity of the king, with whom they always had friendly relations. Possibly the gentlemen on the orders of His Majesty in Abyssinia, Count Seckendorff (odor Soitaondorff), Lieutenant Stumm and Drs. Rohlfs can provide reliable information. As for the mantle mentioned in chapter 3, there is a similar one also in the possession of the missionary Saalmeyer, who has traveled to Jerusalem, and in the whole there are 8 such coats. Theodorus had ordered her in the famous filigree workshops at Adoa as wedding dresses for the English queen, if you should listen to his advertisements. After these hopes had been shattered, however, he gave them in a simplified manner to the most distinguished women in the country, to which the wives of the aforementioned missionaries (“Abessynians of birth”) were counted. Two of these coats were purchased by Lord Napier and sent to Her Majesty the Queen of England as trophies to London.
As regards the prices demanded, they do not appear to be high;
…. The owners wish … that the gn. Items for a patriotic collection would be acquired. ….. Signed Nerenz ….. “.
Acquisition of these pieces does not materialize.

“Cf. Act. 751/68: the saddle is offered again, for 500 marks. Purchase is rejected.

“Cf. Act. 268/70: Letter of the Missionary Society to Basel (Chrischona) of March 14, 1870: … “Of old King Theodore of Abyssinia became one of our missionaries and his wife
1 with rich embroidery and with silver = u. Filigree work richly decorated
Lady’s coat awarded as special award (a kind of aristocratic award)
can only be lent by the king … ((Saddle is also offered!))
both have a value of Thn. 700, -representative ….. made a present ….
Purchase is rejected.”

Details:
Karl Heinrich Saalmüller (29.11.1829 – 1906), collector
Silk, gold, silver, cotton
ID No. III A 566

State seal – purchase not loot

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Theodore’s seal (purchased not looted) in Ethnological Museum, Berlin


emuseumplus-1Catalogue entry:

[Automatic translation]

State seal of Abyssinia
Gerhard Rohlfs (14.4.1831 – 2.6.1896), collector
1868
Sudan (country / region)
historical name: Abyssinia
silver
Diameter: 4.6 cm
Height: 5.5 cm
Height: 2 mm (disc)
Weight: <2 kg
ID No. III A 249
Collection: Ethnological Museum | Africa
© Photo: Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz
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description
from the file E 1126/1868: Report by Mr. Rohlfs to Wilhelm von Prussia
… it is handed over to the king (see also III A 250a, b; III A 251).
1. The older seal of the king Theodore from silver and with the double inscription in Amharic un Arabic, which is the same and means “ras Kassa sultan el habescha” or “the governor Kassa king of Abyssinia”. This seal was in the possession of Eduard Zander, formerly sent by the Duke of Anhalt for collecting half to Abessinen, and later hired by King Theosor as “alter ego”, i. he had to do with the royal clothes, in battles and skirmishes the enemy missiles from the king and on himself. The seal was purchased.

For the sake of completeness, the article mentioned under 4 is to be mentioned here, although it is no longer in the museum here; it was a crown that was reclaimed by the king on 27.02.1869. (Cf. act. 214/69). The crown was sent as a gift to Victoria from England to England (see Acts 286/69). Photos of the Crown were delivered to the museum. Rohlfs ran the crown “during the plundering of the mountain Magdala on 13.04.1868” … “by an English infantry soldier (probably 33rd Regiment).”

The Berlin drinking horn ‘found during the storming of Magdala’

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What: Drinking horn with leather cover and metal mouthpiece, said to belong to Emperor Tewodros

Where: The Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Takustraße 40, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Fotonachweis: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum /CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The catalogue entry includes a picture of the horn and a description of how it was found:

“The present drinking horn was found by me (Stumm, A. d.) During the storming and the taking of Magdala by the English on April 13, 1868, in the tent of Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia … As one of the first to climb over and enclose the fence of the fortress in which Theodore and 19 companions had encircled, I found the emperor’s corpse, apparently barely a few moments after Theodoros had taken his life by a pistol shot far from the entrance of the tent, which was immediately recognizable by its size and splendor as that of the emperor. A divan and a heap of piled blankets occupied the interior, and on the latter the drinking horn, half-filled with araki, was evidently the last part of the emperor known by his drunkenness.

“The closure of the drinking horn consisted of a wooden stopper with a brass button, which was lost during the transport to the coast, and was later restored in Germany, according to the original form in … (illegible) silver.”
Florenz den 1. December 1868. Gez. Stumm, Second Lieutenant à la suite of the Hanoverian Hussar Regiment No. 15 (Letter to Wilhelm I of Prussia).

The catalogue entry says Stumm gave the drinking horn to the Prussian king who later passed it onto the museum.

The mouthpiece is marked with the inscription: “Trinkhorn des Kaisers Theodoros von Abissinien – Magdala 13. April 1868”.

Details
Length: 62 cm
Diameter: 14 cm (bottom)
ID No. III A 252