What: A brass processional cross, without socket, bought for £3 from General Holland

Where: The Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2RL

The catalogue entry reads: “Processional cross. Abyssinian. Price £3.0.0. Purchased from Major Holland. Date of receipt from stores 26th April 1869…

“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.”

Description:
“Central cross within an openwork quatrefoil, surmounted by other crosses. Amharic inscription at centre on one face.”

Museum number:
1733-1869