{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O144273"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O144273/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BA1013/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BA1013/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BA1013","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BC2532","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU6271","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O144273/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O144273","accessionNumber":"847-1868","objectType":"Bitäwa","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This armlet is an example of a <i>bitäwa</i>, an item of Ethiopian honorific jewellery worn by men and awarded by Ethiopian emperors. It was presented to the South Kensington Museum (later V&A) by the Foreign Office in 1868. It had formerly been given to a British civil servant, Hormuzd Rassam, by the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II in April 1866, during a diplomatic mission that sought to secure the release of European hostages imprisoned by the Emperor at his fortress at Maqdala. This episode would eventually lead to the 1867-68 Expedition to Ethiopia, when vast quantities of Ethiopian material culture were looted from Maqdala by the British Army.","physicalDescription":"Arm Guard. Silver ornamented with silver gilt filigree and coloured stones. Hinged on both sides. 6 silver filigree bosses around the edge on each side. Central stone in mount, blue one side, green the other.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"},{"text":"silver-gilt","id":"x37998"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Silver, ornamented with silver gilt filigree","categories":[{"text":"Africa","id":"THES49019"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2006BA1013","2006BC2532","2017JU6271"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES409367"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Armlet","id":"AAT45990"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Ethiopia","id":"x35090"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1868","earliest":"1868-01-01","latest":"1868-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Presented by the Foreign Office","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"15.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"11.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"(at widest point)","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"5.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"(at narrowest point)","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<u>Provenance</u>: Given by Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia to Hormuzd Rassam, April 1866. Presented to the South Kensington Museum by the Foreign Office, 1868.\n\nThis armlet is an example of a <i>bitäwa</i>, worn by men and awarded by Ethiopian emperors as honorific jewellery until the 1930s, when they fell out of use.\n\nIt was originally a gift from the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II to Hormuzd Rassam, a British diplomat. Rassam had been sent to Ethiopia in 1866 to negotiate the release of around thirty European diplomats and missionaries stationed in Ethiopia who had been taken hostage by Tewodros in 1863. The Emperor had taken this action after letters he had written to Queen Victoria in 1857 and 1862, requesting military assistance from Britain, had gone unanswered.\n\nRassam initially appeared to have been successful in his efforts to secure the release of the hostages, and in April 1866, Tewodros presented him with a selection of gifts including ‘a royal saddle, shield, sword, spear and armlet'. However, in July 1866, Tewodros re-arrested the hostages along with the members of Rassam's mission themselves. At this point, according to Rassam's written account of the mission, ‘all these presents were taken from us, excepting the armlets’. This <i>bitäwa </i>is therefore the only one of Tewdros' gifts that is known to have remained in Rassam's possession.\n\nFollowing these 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\r\nOn 10th April 1868, a brutal battle took place between the Emperor's troops and the British army at Arogee, a plateau below the emperor's fortress at Maqdala. The British army very quickly overwhelmed Tewodros’ soldiers with enormous firepower that resulted in heavy Ethiopian casualties. 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\nAfter the expedition, this <i>bitäwa</i> was presented to the South Kensington Museum by the Foreign Office in July 1868, along with other objects given to Rassam during his time in Ethiopia. Items looted from Maqdala by the British army were also acquired by the South Kensington Museum from 1868 onwards.\n\nAccession register entry: 'Arm Guard. Silver ornamented with silver gilt filigree and coloured stones. / Presented by Theodore, King of Abyssinia to Mr Hormuzd Rassam; in red leather case. Modern Abyssinian. Presented by the Foreign Office. Date of receipt from stores 13th July 1868.' (Note: 'Abyssinia' was a term historically used to refer to Ethiopia by those outside the country. Tewodros was often referred to as 'Theodore' by British sources).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"<i>Bitäwa</i> (armlet), silver ornamented with silver gilt filigree and coloured stones, Ethiopia, 1868","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Watson Jones, Alexandra, “British Collecting in Ethiopia, 1769 to 1972: Travellers, Military Expeditions, Museums and Royal Gifting ” (PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, 2024), https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/29946, 209-212"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hormuzd Rassam, <i>Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia</i>, 2 vols. (London: J. Murray, 1869)."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[{"text":"1867-8 British Expedition to Ethiopia (1/10/1867 - 13/5/1868)","id":"AUTH407033"}],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["847-1868"],"accessionNumberNum":"847","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1868,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-30","recordCreationDate":"2008-01-30","availableToBook":true}}