{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O107777"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O107777/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB1818/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BB1818/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BB1818","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BB1817","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9502","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O107777/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O107777","accessionNumber":"M.26-2005","objectType":"Chalice","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This chalice comes from the Ethiopian Orthodox church and was used for the consecration of the wine. An inscription records that it was given to the church of Qwesqwam by King Iyyasu II (ruled 1730-55) and his mother Empress Mentewwab. It reads, 'This is the chalice of our King Iyyasu, whose throne name is Adyam Saggad, and of our Empress Walatta Giyorgis, Berhan Mogasa, which they gave to the tabot of Quesqwam so that it might be for them salvation of body and soul'. A gold crown, also in the V&amp;A collection (M.27-2005), was probably given to the church at the same time. The crown and chalice were looted by British troops following the destruction of Maqdala (Magdala) by the British Army in April 1868. They were deposited at the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum) by H.M. Treasury in 1872.","physicalDescription":"Gold chalice with a slightly domed and tiered circular foot. The trumpet shaped stem with three knops separated by embossed floral bands. The stem is surmounted by a wide cup with a flat rim. Under the rim of the chalice is an incised dedicatory inscription.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Giyorgis, Walda","id":"A15154"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":"The maker's name is incised on the foot."}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Raised, embossed and incised gold","categories":[{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Metalwork","id":"THES48920"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"},{"text":"Africa","id":"THES49019"},{"text":"Colonialism and empire","id":"THES253004"},{"text":"Military","id":"THES250701"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006BB1818","2006BB1817","2006AY9502"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"83","id":"THES49711"},"free":"","case":"CA9","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Chalice","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Gondar","id":"x39212"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1735-1740","earliest":"1735-01-01","latest":"1740-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"M.27-2005","id":"O108443"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"20.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"20","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"bowl","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Dedicatory inscription in Ge'ez, incised on bowl.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"\"The chalice of our King Iyyasu whose reigning title is Adyam-Säggäd, and of his mother our Queen Wälättä-Giyorgis Berhan-Mogäsa, who gave it to the tabot of Qwesqwam for it to be medicine for their body and spirit. A weight of 65 ounces for the chalice and spoon.\"","transliteration":"ze s’ewa‘e zänegusnä Iyyasu zä semä mängestu Adyam-Säggäd wäemmu negestnä Wälättä-Giyorgis Berhan-Mogäsa zäwähabu lätabotä Qwesqwam semä yekunomu lämädhanitä sega wänäfs\n65 wäqét mizanu läs ’ewawna läerfä mäsqälu","type":"","note":"Transliteration and translation by Jacques Mercier, published in<i> The Gold Crown of Magdala,</i> Apollo, December 2006, Vol. 164, p.50."},{"content":"Maker's name, incised on foot","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"\"and its craftsman [is] the <i>bajarond</i> Walda-Giyorgis\"","transliteration":"wä-ki-ne-ye-hu bäjärond Wäldä Giyorgis","type":"","note":"Transliteration and translation by Jacques Mercier, published in<i> The Gold Crown of Magdala,</i> Apollo, December 2006, Vol. 164, p.50."}],"objectHistory":"<u>Provenance</u>: Made by Walda Giyorgis and given to the Church of Our Lady of Qwesqwam, near Gondar, by Emperor Iyyasu II and Empress Mentewwab, probably around 1740; taken from Gondar by Emperor Tewodros II, 1860s; looted by a British soldier from Maqdala, April 1868; deposited on loan at the South Kensington Museum by H.M. Treasury, 1872; formally accessioned into the V&amp;A collection in 2005 in accordance with the 1983 National Heritage Act.\n\nThis sold gold chalice and a gold crown (M.27-2005) are among some of the most famous Ethiopian objects brought to Britain as a result of the 1867-8 British Expedition to Ethiopia, a pivotal episode in both British and Ethiopian history that culminated in the death of Emperor Tewodros II, the destruction of his fortress at Maqdala, and the looting of vast quantities of Ethiopian material culture by the British Army.\n\nThe inscriptions on this chalice tells us that it was made by a goldsmith named Walda Giyorgis, and given to the Church of Our Lady of Qwesqwam, near Gondar, Ethiopia. The crown and chalice were gifts to the church from the Ethiopian Emperor Iyyasu II (who ruled from 1730 to 1755), and his mother Empress Mentewwab.\n\r\nDuring the reign of Emperor Tewodros II, the crown and chalice were brought to Tewodros’ fortress at Maqdala, in the country’s northern highlands, as part of the Emperor’s efforts to establish a treasury and church there. Tewodros had seized objects from other Ethiopian towns and churches during his military campaigns, particularly in Gondar, for this purpose.\n\nIn 1863, Tewodros took hostage around thirty European diplomats and missionaries stationed in Ethiopia. He took this action after letters he had written to Queen Victoria in 1857 and 1862, requesting military assistance from Britain, had gone unanswered. Following failed diplomatic attempts to secure the release of the hostages, a large-scale British military expedition was launched from Bombay in October 1867. The expedition was led by General Sir Charles Robert Napier, and comprised around 12,000 British and Indian troops.\n\nThe expedition reached Maqdala in April 1868, where the British army quickly overwhelmed the Ethiopian troops with enormous firepower. On 13 April, Napier’s forces launched the final attack on Maqdala that saw Tewodros’ armies entirely defeated. The Emperor took his own life.\n\r\nThe British Army then proceeded to ransack the fortress and the surrounding area, where they found many Ethiopian manuscripts, sacred objects and other valuable items. The loot from Maqdala was transported to the Talanta Plain around ten miles away, where the army’s ‘prize’ auction took place a week later.\n\r\nOne bidder at the auction was Richard Rivington Holmes, an assistant curator at the British Museum. Holmes had been sent to accompany the expedition to acquire objects for the museum’s collection. Holmes hoped to acquire the crown and chalice for his employer. However, a prolonged disagreement ensued about whether the treasures would be purchased from the army by the UK government. This led to a parliamentary debate in 1871, where British Prime Minister William Gladstone argued that the objects should never have been taken from Ethiopia.\n\r\nThe crown and chalice were eventually deposited at the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum) by H.M. Treasury in 1872.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Gold chalice with incised inscription, made by Walda Giyorgis, Gondar, Ethiopia, 1732-1740","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Admassu, Emanuel, and Eyob Derillo. \"Degodding Maqdala\". In <i>Fifteen Colonial Thefts</i>, edited by Sela K. Adjei and Yann LeGall, 151–60. London: Pluto Press, 2024."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Barringer, T. J. \"The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial Project.\" In <i>Colonialism and the Objec</i><i>t: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum</i>, edited by T. J. Barringer and Tom Flynn, 11-27. London: Routledge, 1998."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cormack, Zoe. \"The British Museum and the Abyssinian Campaign, 1867–8.\" <i>History</i> (2025)."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Heavens, Andrew. <i>The Prince and the Plunder: How Britain Took One Small Boy and Hundreds of Treasures from Ethiopia</i>. Cheltenham: The History Press, 2022."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Heldman, Marilyn. </font><i>African Zion, the Sacred Art of Ethiopia.</i> New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. p.248, ill. 112."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jones, Alexandra. \"Ethiopian Objects at the Victoria and Albert Museum.\" <i>African Research and Documentation</i> 135 (2019): 8-24."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Mercier, Jacques, <i>The Gold Crown of Magdala. </i>Apollo, December 2006, Vol. 164, p.46-53"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Patrizio Gunning, Lucia, and Debbie Challis. \"Planned Plunder, the British Museum, and the 1868 Maqdala Expedition.\" <i>The Historical Journal</i> 66, no. 3 (2023): 550-72."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Schuhmacher, Jacques. \"Museums and the Restitution of 'Spoils of War'.\" In <i>Cultural Heritage in Modern Conflict: Past, Propaganda, Parade</i>, edited by Timothy Clack and Mark Dunkley, 165-88. Abingdon: Routledge, 2022."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Spiers, Edward M. “Spoils of War.” In <i>Dividing the Spoils: Perspectives on Military Collections and the British Empire</i>, edited by Henrietta Lidchi and Stuart Allan, 19-38. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Watson Jones, Alexandra. \"Maqdala and the South Kensington Museum: 150 Years Later.\" In <i>Intersectional Encounters in the Nineteenth-Century Archive</i>, edited by Rachel Bryant Davies and Erin Johnson-Williams, 71-87. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[{"text":"Looting of Maqdala (1868)","id":"V92"},{"text":"1867-8 British Expedition to Ethiopia (1/10/1867 - 13/5/1868)","id":"AUTH407033"}],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"<i>Maqdala 1868</i> display, 5 April 2018 - 30 June 2019\n\nChalice\nጽዋ\n\r\nMade by Walda Giyorgis, Gondar, Ethiopia, 1735–40\n\r\nThe inscription on this solid gold chalice tells us that it was given to the Church of Our Lady of Qwesqwam, near Gondar. The chalice and the crown nearby were gifts from King Iyyasu II (ንጉስ እያሱ 2ኛ), who ruled from 1730 to 1755, and his mother Empress Mentewwab (እቴጌ ምንትዋብ). After being brought to England following the siege at Maqdala, the crown and chalice were the subject of a House of Commons debate, where the Prime Minister William Gladstone passionately argued to return them to their homeland.\n\nRaised, embossed and incised gold\nDeposited at the South Kensington Museum by H.M. Treasury in 1872\nMuseum no. M.26-2005\n\n<i>The inscription highlights the devotion and connection of Ethiopian Orthodox Church to the country’s royal family. Bittersweet, as I can’t help thinking about the Maqdala loot – how many masterpieces alike have been auctioned off, undocumented and without trace?</i>\n\n- Samuel Berhanu, artist and member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church\r\n\r\n","date":{"text":"5 April 2018 - 30 June 2019","earliest":"2018-04-05","latest":"2019-06-30"}},{"text":"Ethiopian Chalice\r\n\r\nThis chalice comes from the Ethiopian Orthodox church and was used for the consecration of the wine. \r\n\r\nAn inscription records that it was given to the church of Quesquam by King Iyyasu II (ruled 1730-55) and his mother. It reads, 'This is the chalice of our King Iyyasu, whose throne name is Adyam Saggad, and of our Empress Walatta Giyorgis, Berhan Mogasa, which they gave to the tabot of Quesqwam so that it might be for them salvation of body and soul'. (A tabot is a symbolic representation of the biblical Ark of the Covenant.)\r\n\r\nThe chalice was taken by British troops at the siege of Magdala (Mek'dala) in 1868. It was deposited at the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum) by H.M. Treasury in 1872.\r\n\r\nThe Ethiopian church was part of the Coptic church until 1959, when it became fully independent. \r\n\r\nGondar, Ethiopia, probably about 1730-55\r\nGold with hammered, cast and chased decoration\r\n\r\nMuseum no. Loan:T.11 [now M.26-2005]","date":{"text":"22/11/2005","earliest":"2005-11-22","latest":"2005-11-22"}}],"partNumbers":["M.26-2005"],"accessionNumberNum":"26","accessionNumberPrefix":"M","accessionYear":2005,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Previous loan number","id":"THES50326"},"number":"LOAN:TREASURY.11"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-11","recordCreationDate":"2004-12-13","availableToBook":false}}