Not currently on display at the V&A

Anklet

before 1868 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The vendor of this anklet, Major Holland, probably acquired it via his involvement in a British expedition to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1868. The expedition was prompted by the capture of a number of Europeans, including the British consul Captain Cameron, by the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (Theodore), who had become frustrated with a lack of communication from Queen Victoria’s government. The British response was a military expedition of huge complexity and expense led by Sir Robert Napier. The expedition marched to Tewodros’s fortress at Maqdala where a brief battle took place. Britain won the conflict, but not before the captives were released and Tewodros himself had committed suicide.

The vendor may have been Major Trevenen James Holland who, with a military colleague, Sir Henry Montague Hozier, provided the only official account of the expedition on the orders of the Secretary of State for War. Their Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia was published in two volumes in 1870.

19th-century Museum documentation notes that this solid metal bangle with incised decoration was of a kind ‘worn by soldiers’.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silver
Brief description
Incised silver bangle of a kind 'worn by soldiers', Ethiopia, before 1868
Physical description
Tarnished silver bangle with incised ornament.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 8cm
  • Height: 0.9cm
Object history
Accessions register entry: 'Anklet. Silver with incised ornament, worn by soldiers. Abyssinian. Price £1.0.0. Purchased from Major Holland. Date of receipt from stores 26th April 1869.'
Subject depicted
Association
Summary
The vendor of this anklet, Major Holland, probably acquired it via his involvement in a British expedition to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1868. The expedition was prompted by the capture of a number of Europeans, including the British consul Captain Cameron, by the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (Theodore), who had become frustrated with a lack of communication from Queen Victoria’s government. The British response was a military expedition of huge complexity and expense led by Sir Robert Napier. The expedition marched to Tewodros’s fortress at Maqdala where a brief battle took place. Britain won the conflict, but not before the captives were released and Tewodros himself had committed suicide.

The vendor may have been Major Trevenen James Holland who, with a military colleague, Sir Henry Montague Hozier, provided the only official account of the expedition on the orders of the Secretary of State for War. Their Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia was published in two volumes in 1870.

19th-century Museum documentation notes that this solid metal bangle with incised decoration was of a kind ‘worn by soldiers’.
Collection
Accession number
1731-1869

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Record createdJanuary 6, 2005
Record URL
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