cap
- Museum number
- Af1981,09.1
- Description
-
Cap hand-woven from white and indigo-dyed cotton with spikes around the sides.
- Production date
- 1870-1880 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 18 centimetres
-
Height: 17 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- This is a typical hat made in the Cameroons, which had presumably been imported into the Niger Delta.
- Location
- On display (G25/dc11)
- Acquisition date
- 1981
- Acquisition notes
- Af1981,09.1 to 15 were given by Mrs Anne MacDonald, and were (inaccurately) recorded in the donation book as "A collection of textiles from the Cameroons comprising four hats and eleven pieces of textile."
This was corrected in a letter from Mrs J A Macdonald to the Keeper, M D McLeod, dated 16.5.1981: '...I thought though, that you should know they [the textiles] are not from Cameroons. My grandfather, Walter Johnstone, brought them home just over 100 years ago and had been stationed in Calabar, Bonny and Opobo [so] that they must have been woven in one of those places, possibly by some of King Jaja's women as my grandfather was very friendly with King Jaja ...' (See Eth.Doc.351).
King Jaja founded Opobo in 1869, and was dethroned in 1887. Walter Johnstone was a partner of Couper, Johnstone and Co. of Glasgow, and looked after King Jaja's son (d.1882) when he was sent to be educated in England. The dating of the collection given here is based on the evidence that he was in the Delta and knew King Jaja in the 1870s.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1981,09.1