shamma
- Museum number
- Af1912,0410.34
- Description
-
Shamma; made of cotton with woven silk border (tibeb).
- Production date
- 19thC
- Dimensions
-
Length: 261 centimetres
-
Width: 186 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Described by Cornelia Mary Speedy as 'Queen's shamma'. See notes in Collection File Af1912,0410.1-81.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
1995-96, London, Museum of Mankind (Room 4), 'Secular and Sacred'
- Acquisition date
- 1912
- Acquisition notes
- Af1912,0410.1-81 were donated by Cornelia Mary Speedy, widow of Captain Tristram Speedy. We cannot now precisely identify when most objects entered his collection. The donor noted that during his travels Captain Speedy ‘brought to England many Abyssinian curios’ (see letter from Cornelia Mary Speedy, 27th February 1912 in Collection File Af1912,0410.1-81).
Captain Speedy made four separate visits to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia and Eritrea). In 1861-1862, he visited Emperor Tewodros II’s court. He participated in the Abyssinian Campaign 1867-68 as interpreter for Robert Napier. In 1884, he accompanied Admiral Sir William Hewett’s mission to Adwa to meet with Emperor Yohannes IV. In 1897, he accompanied the Rennell-Rodd mission to Addis Ababa to meet Emperor Menelik. He also made two visits to Sudan, in the early 1860s and 1878.
Nos. 1 to 59 are all recorded as from Abyssinia [Ethiopia]; Nos 60 to 79 come from Sudan, Egypt or Malaya. Registration details are based on recollections provided by Cornelia Mary Speedy and may not be accurate (see lists in Collection File Af1912,0410.1-81).
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1912,0410.34