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Shawl

Shamma
ca. 1860 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This Ethiopian shamma (shawl) belonged to Queen Terunesh, or Empress Tiruwork Wube, the second wife of Emperor Tewodros II and the mother of Prince Alemayehu. The Queen died about a month after the 1868 siege of Maqdala (Magdala), while being escorted by the British army to her home province. Her possessions were then sent to England, to the Secretary of State for India, who gave this item to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1869. Items looted during the siege were also given to the Museum.

The shamma is made from white cotton, probably handwoven, with a coloured border. It is an example of a natala, which is a light shawl often worn by women with a kamis (dress).

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleShawl
Materials and techniques
Cotton. It appears to be handwoven.
Brief description
Shamma (shawl), cotton, Ethiopia, about 1860
Physical description
White cotton shamma (shawl) woven with a coloured border of yellow, orange and red.

Object history
This Ethiopian shamma (shawl) belonged to Queen Terunesh, or Empress Tiruwork Wube, the second wife of Emperor Tewodros II and the mother of Prince Alemayehu. The Queen died about a month after the 1868 siege of Maqdala (Magdala), while being escorted by the British army to her home province. Her possessions were then sent to England, to the Secretary of State for India, who gave this item to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1869. Items looted during the siege were also given to the Museum.



Historic accessions register entry: 'Shawl. Cotton, white, with border of coloured stripes; belonging formerly to the Queen of Abyssinia. Abyssinian. L. 6ft 9in. W. 9ft. / April 28th 1869 / Given by the Secretary of State for India.'

See 'Set of Articles of Deceased Queen of Abyssinia' and related correspondence in British Library collections at IOR R/20/AIA/503. Anklets do not appear on this list.
Association
Summary
This Ethiopian shamma (shawl) belonged to Queen Terunesh, or Empress Tiruwork Wube, the second wife of Emperor Tewodros II and the mother of Prince Alemayehu. The Queen died about a month after the 1868 siege of Maqdala (Magdala), while being escorted by the British army to her home province. Her possessions were then sent to England, to the Secretary of State for India, who gave this item to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1869. Items looted during the siege were also given to the Museum.

The shamma is made from white cotton, probably handwoven, with a coloured border. It is an example of a natala, which is a light shawl often worn by women with a kamis (dress).
Bibliographic references
  • Rosemary Crill, Jennifer Wearden and Verity Wilson, Dress in Detail from Around the World, London: V&A Publications, 2002. 224 p., ill. ISBN 09781851773787. p. 36.
  • Robe featured in V&A web theme 'Treasures from Ethiopia' http://web.archive.org/web/20221208151459/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/periods_styles/hiddenhistories/ethiopia_treasures/index.html
  • Nicola Stylianou, Producing and Collecting for Empire: African Textiles at the V&A, 1852- 2000, PhD Thesis, London, University of the Arts, 2013
  • Nicola Stylianou, The Empress's Old Clothes: Biographies of African Dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in: Dress History: New Directions in Theory and Practice (eds. Charlotte Nicklas and Annebella Pollen), London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, pp. 81-96
Collection
Accession number
401-1869

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Record createdJanuary 9, 2008
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