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”.

National Trust reference number: NT 428872

More reading

Pankhurst, R. 2009. Queen Ṭǝru Wärq’s Necklace Aethiopica 12 (2009) 202–206.

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’.