The British Museum’s medieval curator – Charles Hercules Read – was responsible for acquiring the Asante Ewer in the late 19th century. Read was the principal curator for ethnography, and was also responsible for acquiring and writing the first catalogue of the Benin Bronzes. This lecture will consider the Asante ewer, its 1896 looting from Kumasi, its subsequent acquisition and display history at the British Museum, and how that intersects with the broader theme of 19th/20th Century scholars’ approach to the global Middle Ages, refracted through a colonial/Imperial lens.
Book launch after lecture
Following this lecture, the British Archaeological Association warmly invites members and guests to a celebratory drinks reception following December’s Annual Lecture to mark the publication of a major new volume: From Miniature to Monumental: Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture, a Festschrift in honour of Professor Sandy Heslop.