{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O144662"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O144662/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT3410/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT3410/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT3410","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O144662/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O144662","accessionNumber":"850-1868","objectType":"Cup","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This drinking cup was presented to the South Kensington Museum (later V&amp;amp;A) by the Foreign Office in 1868. It had formerly been given to a British civil servant, Hormuzd Rassam, by Abuna Salama III, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from 1841 to 1867, during a diplomatic mission that sought to secure the release of European hostages imprisoned by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II 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":"Drinking cup of buffalo horn inverted into a small silver base attached by means of a bolt. Horn sealed by means of a wooden disk","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"horn","id":"AAT11826"},{"text":"silver","id":"AAT11029"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Horn, with silver mount","categories":[{"text":"Africa","id":"THES49019"},{"text":"Drinking","id":"THES48965"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MET","id":"THES48599"},"images":["2008BT3410"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES404504"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"cups","id":"AAT43202"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Ethiopia","id":"x35090"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"before 1868","earliest":null,"latest":"1867-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"848-1868","id":"O144276"},"association":""},{"object":{"text":"849-1868","id":"O108061"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Presented by the Foreign Office","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"14","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"3.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"base","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"9.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"neck","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<u>Provenance</u>: Given by Abuna Salama III to Hormuzd Rassam, around 1866. Presented to the South Kensington Museum by the Foreign Office, 1868.\n\nThis drinking cup was a gift from Abuna Salama III (head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church from 1841 to 1867) to Hormuzd Rassam, a British diplomat.\n\nRassam had been sent to Ethiopia in 1866 to negotiate the release of around thirty European diplomats and missionaries who had been taken hostage by the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II 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, but in July 1866, Tewodros re-arrested the hostages along with the members of Rassam's mission themselves. The Abuna, formerly an ally of the emperor, had also been imprisoned following a series of disagreements with Tewodros. This drinking cup was one of three gifts given by the Abuna to Rassam during their shared time in captivity that are now in the V&amp;A collection. The Abuna later died of bronchitis, whilst still incarcerated.\n\nFollowing the 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 drinking cup 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: 'Drinking cup. Buffalo's horn, mounted in silver. Presented by the late Aboona Salaman Patriarch of Abyssinia to Mr Hormuzd Rassam. 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).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Drinking cup of buffalo horn with silver mount, Ethiopia, made before 1868.","bibliographicReferences":[{"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":["850-1868"],"accessionNumberNum":"850","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1868,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-30","recordCreationDate":"2008-02-05","availableToBook":true}}