What: Necklace belonged to “Queen Sabazadis”, described as the emperor’s wife
Where: The National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 4HT
The database entry describes a “necklace, 1868 (c); belonged to Queen Sabazadis, the wife of King Theodore of Abyssinia; owned by Lt C F James, Bombay Staff Corps and possibly 2nd (The Queen’s Royal) Regiment of Foot; leather, crystal, silver, glass and brass beads, threaded on string; associated with Abyssinia (1868).
What: Queen Woyzaro Terunesh’s cotton cloak, richly embroidered and decorated with metalwork
Where: Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3DZ
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. It also says a group of missionaries from Magdala had been trying to sell the cloaks in Egypt after the campaign.
Context: “Information supplied by Nicola Stylianou, PhD student at the V&A and taken from the V&A archives, offers evidence that Z 19184-5, Z 18161 and Z 19188 were transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum on 24/8/1934, with the Hawaiian cape 1934.1159, three Chinese textiles, a Russian silk, and a fringed woven vegetable fibre textile, with bands of geometrical patterns’ from the South Seas, the latter items as yet unidentified.
“Given to the V&A 28 April 1869 by the Secretary of State for India. The handwritten V&A register, completed on entry notes the cloak as ‘belonging formerly to the Queen of Abyssinia’. The printed V&A register confirms this and notes ‘This cloak formerly belonged to the Queen of Abyssinia’. Previously owned by Queen Woyzaro Terunesh, the second wife of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros (Theodore), and mother of the prince Alamayehu. Acquired by British troops at the siege of Magdala (Mek’dala) in 1868.”
What: Queen Woyzaro Terunesh’s embroidered blue silk cloak
Where: Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3DZ
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. It also says a group of missionaries from Magdala had been trying to sell the cloaks in Egypt after the campaign.
Context: “Information supplied by Nicola Stylianou, PhD student at the V&A and taken from the V&A archives, offers evidence that Z 19184-5, Z 18161 and Z 19188 were transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum on 24/8/1934, with the Hawaiian cape 1934.1159, three Chinese textiles, a Russian silk, and a fringed woven vegetable fibre textile, with bands of geometrical patterns’ from the South Seas, the latter items as yet unidentified.
“The Handwritten V&A register, completed on entry, noted it was given by the Secretary of State for India, and the date of receipt from stores as April 28th 1869. The V&A printed register adds ‘This cloak formerly belonged to the Queen of Abyssinia’. This is a reference to Queen Woyzaro Terunesh, the second wife of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros (Theodore), and mother of the prince Alamayehu. presumably acquired by British troops at the siege of Magdala (Mek’dala) in 1868 along with Z 19184.”
Detail Reference numbers: Z 19188; 396-1869 [V&A] Measurements: 980.0mm x 1905.0mm
What: A silver gilt bracelet said to belong to Queen Terunesh, the wife of Tewodros and mother of Alemayehu, taken by one of the freed prisoners on Magdala
National Museums of Scotland spreadsheet Accession number: A.A.1901.395 Description: Bracelet of silver-gilt cast with bands of pellets and rope patterns, worn by King Theodore’s Queen: Eastern Africa, Ethiopia, taken by one of the Abyssinian prisoners at Magdala Acquisition source: Holt, W.J., Colonel, 1901 (fl.)
What: Necklace belonging to Queen Tiru Warq, wife of Emperor Téwodros II, given by the commander of the British force, Robert Napier, to then British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
Where: On show in Disraeli’s country home, Hughenden Manor, in Buckinghamshire, England, HP14 4LA. The site is now run by the National Trust.
The database entry includes a photo and describes a “necklace of yellow, blue and millefiore glass beads and ten silver caskets on silver chain”.
In Richard Pankhurst’s essay ‘Queen Ṭǝru Wärq’s Necklace’ the he states that this piece of jewellery is ‘unique’ and has contextualised it within the broader necklace-making traditions of Ethiopia due to the use of glass beads, silver cylindrical caskets, and filigree (Pankhurst 2009, p. 205). He also explains that necklaces with these elements would have been ‘highly prized by Ethiopian princesses, noblewomen, and all who could afford them’.
What: A book of Psalms, belonged to Queen Tirunesh, the wife of King of Kings Tewodros II and mother of Prince Alamayu
Where: The British Museum, Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG
Photo: There is no picture in the British Museum catalogue entry – https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1912-0410-37-b
With this book, a fable comes to life on a museum shelf. There was one story that everyone knew about Alamayu’s mother: the story about the time Tewodros interrupted her as she was reading the Bible’s Book of Psalms.
The queen turned to him coldly and told him to go away, saying she was conversing with a greater king than him. The story was repeated so often, and made its point so clearly, that it must have been a parable. But again, there it is, her actual copy of King David’s hymns and laments, in the British Museum.
Someone who visited Alamayu on the Isle of Wight described how the queen’s wood-covered Psalter was one of the boy’s most prized possessions. Here is the article in the Oct. 29, 1869 issue of The Star newspaper:
The Star, Oct. 29, 1869, Page 4
The British Museum doesn’t make a lot of the book. There’s no picture on its website and, like Alamayu’s necklace, it is not on display. That is hardly surprising. Ethiopian Books of Psalms are relatively common, one of the best-represented classes of sacred literature in collections of Ethiopic manuscripts. Most of them aren’t meant to be rarefied treasures. They are books for regular readings, daily devotions and prayers. Many, like this one, come with a leather carrying case and shoulder strap so people can lug them around with their baggage.
This one’s real value is in the story and in the details that must have reminded Alamayu of his mother – the small motifs next to the black and red text, the ‘square of red damask silk with floral designs in yellow and green’ set into the back. A small square mirror set in the inside cover would have caught the reflections of his mother’s face. It was not there for cosmetic reasons. Mirrors, which appear on a number of Ethiopian manuscripts, can be symbols of transcendence, of looking through something to something else or somewhere else.
‘It shows the importance of a prayer book,’ the Rev. Belete Assefa, a London-based priest from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, told me. ‘It’s a reflection of the Kingdom of God, a reflection of heaven.’
Details:
The British Museum catalogue entry reads: “Book of Psalms previously belonging to Emperor Tewodros II’s wife. The pages are made of vellum and the text is hand written in black and red ink with occasional decorative panels of floral motifs. The book is bound in red leather covered wooden boards. The front and back covers are finely tooled with borders of diamonds, circles and interlacing designs. A central panel contains a finely tooled hand cross inlaid with five metal (?) studs at the base and and eighteen silver (?) studs around the cross. The inside front cover of tooled red leather is inlaid with a small square mirror with a border of silver (?) decorated with punched designs. The back inside cover of tooled red leather is inset with a square of red damask silk with floral designs in yellow and green with some metalic threads.”
Museum number: Af1912,0410.37. Acquisition name: Donated by: Mrs Cornelia Mary Speedy Field Collection by: Capt Tristram C S Speedy Acquisition date: 1912
