Researching the provenance of the V&A’s Ethiopian objects

The V&A’s collection includes nearly 200 Ethiopian objects – from metalwork and textiles to photography, manuscripts, and paintings. From September to December 2025, I undertook a three-month Doctoral Placement at the V&A to contribute to the ongoing research into the provenance of these objects – that is, the history of their ownership and how they came to enter the museum’s collections.

Many of the V&A’s Ethiopian objects were acquired following the British Expedition to Ethiopia (1867 – 68), during which the British Army carried out a punitive raid on Emperor Tewodros II’s palace at Maqdala. During this campaign, a vast quantity of objects were looted from the palace and its surrounding area, before being taken back to Britain and sold or exchanged through a variety of channels. For some of the objects now in the V&A, provenance research has already identified that they were looted during this period and established which dealers or collectors sold or donated them to the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A). For others, this research is still ongoing, sometimes requiring in-depth investigation in the museum’s archive to piece together crucial provenance information.

The aim of my placement was to focus on the objects with incomplete provenance recorded in the museum’s collections database. By analysing archival records and acquisition documents, as well as conducting desktop research, I worked to fill in gaps in their histories. Provenance research is an essential part of understanding the context and significance of museum collections – not only to ensure accurate interpretation and care, but to reveal histories of cultural exchange, violence and imperial power that have shaped the formation of museum collections over time.

Most of my work centred on objects in the Metalwork collection.  I began with a list of objects from the V&A’s collections database that referenced Ethiopia or ‘Abyssinia’ (a term historically used by those outside of the country). I then identified those requiring further research and consulted the accession registers and wider museum archives to trace their acquisition histories.

One of the most exciting outcomes of this research was uncovering records for objects that had effectively become hidden within the collection. For example, I found archival evidence relating to a pair of silver-gilt slippers belonging to Queen Terunesh, who had been married to Emperor Tewodros II. Although the V&A’s collection contains jewellery and clothing that had belonged to the Queen, these slippers had been miscatalogued as ‘Turkish’ and transferred to the Middle Eastern section of the Asia department in 2011. They have since been transferred to V&A East Storehouse, where I was able to go and see them. Using archival documentation, I confirmed their correct provenance and updated the museum’s records accordingly.

This discovery was not an isolated case, and as my work at the V&A progressed I identified several other objects that had been inaccurately catalogued. Earlier in my placement, I had examined two arm guards for which the catalogue entry simply read ‘Islamic’, with no provenance information or additional detail. Their style strongly suggested an Ethiopian origin. Archival research confirmed they were indeed Ethiopian, having been sent from Ethiopia to Aden, before reaching Britain and, subsequently, the South Kensington Museum in the late 19th century. A similar story emerged for an amulet case, also catalogued as ‘Islamic’, which proved to be Ethiopian; files relating to the donor indicated that it was looted from Maqdala by a relative who had participated in the 1867 – 68 expedition.  Along with the slippers, these cases demonstrated how provenance information can become obscured over time within large collections, and how dedicated research can reconnect objects with their histories. It also cemented for me the importance of provenance research more broadly – which can be as crucial for identifying what an object is as for understanding where it came from.

Beyond objects that had been looted from Maqdala, I also spent time researching a set of paintings and a manuscript that had been donated to the museum in 1947 by Hender Delves Molesworth, a former V&A curator who had spent time in Ethiopia during the Second World War. These objects lacked both provenance information and, in the case of the paintings, detailed descriptions of what they depicted.

Through exploring museum archives, I discovered that the donor had commissioned manuscripts during his time in Ethiopia in the 1940s, and that this manuscript was likely one of these. I was able to match the donor’s account of his preferred method of commissioning manuscripts in Ethiopia – hiring different individuals for the binding, painting, and writing – with the way in which the item in the V&A collection had been assembled.

I also analysed the paintings, which had originally been described as depicting ‘Battles between Allied and Italian troops in Abyssinia’, through comparison with other Ethiopian battle scenes from the period. This enabled me to confirm that each painting in fact depicts a distinct historical battle, not necessarily connected to the Italo-Ethiopian wars. I identified one as the Battle of Segale and another as the Battle of Dessie, and have updated their catalogue records to reflect this.

My time at the V&A was a rewarding experience that deepened my understanding of how museums conduct provenance research. It also enabled me to step outside of my own PhD research, which focuses on English medieval sculpture, and to develop provenance- specific skills including archival methods, close object study and interdisciplinary collaboration – all skills that are increasingly important in museum practice.

I am especially grateful to my placement supervisor, Provenance Research Curator Dr Alexandra Watson Jones, for her generous guidance throughout the project. I also want to thank colleagues across the museum for their support and expertise, which greatly enriched my research and made my time at the V&A both productive and memorable. Finally, I would like to thank the AHRC for facilitating this partnership with the V&A and for generously funding my placement.