Month: February 2016

March 2016 talk: Medieval Jug from Africa

Medieval jug from Africa in Leeds Museums collection
Medieval jug from Africa in Leeds Museums collection

Talk Title: A Yorkshire link to an English Medieval ewer recovered from the Asante capital, Ghana, in 1896.

Since 1984 Leeds Museums and Galleries  have had on loan a wonderful survival from Medieval England: a bronze ewer, recovered by the Prince of Wales’s own Regiment of Yorkshire from what is now Ghana in 1896. Antonia tells me that the regimental museum in York recently had a major revamp and may well take back the loan later this year, so this may be a timely opportunity to make acquaintance with this fantastic medieval vessel before it returns to the lenders.

Antonia’s talk will situate the ewer in the context of its 1896 retrieval by the British army during an Asante campaign, and explore the routes that this jug, and three others from the same period, may have taken to reach Africa during the 500 or so years following their original manufacture. Clearly the Asante court treasury had a key role in the survival of these jugs and it is interesting to consider what meanings the jugs had for the Asante themselves, as well as their original manufacture and use.

This is not the first time that West Africa has been the focus of interest for us as medievalists. Some time ago we posted on this blog information about a temporary exhibition of ceramic figurines from Komaland  in Ghana.

Antonia Lovelace is curator of World Culture at Leeds Museums and Galleries, and author of a paper on the Prince of Wales’s regimental loan to Leeds in the Journal of Museum Ethnography (no. 12, 2000). She curated the ‘Out of Africa’ displays in the World View Galley at Leeds City Museum (2008-2013) and now looks after the ‘Voices of Asia’ gallery in the same space (launched in 2014).

Antonia will refer to a key article by Martin Bailey, 1993 ‘Two kings, their armies and some jugs. The Ashanti ewer’, Apollo (December: 387-390), and to the British Museum Occasional paper 115, by John Cherry and Neil Stratford (1995) ‘Westminster Kings and the medieval Palace of Westminster’, and look at more recent mentions of these English medieval jugs found in Africa.

Medieval Yorkshire 2 (2015)

Front cover of Medieval Yorkshire 2 (2015)
Front cover of Medieval Yorkshire 2 (2015)

I recently received word that the second volume of the Medieval Section journal Medieval Yorkshire has been printed and is available for distribution to paid up members. The new publication features a paper on Yorkshire’s medieval boroughs by Brian Barber; on Plough pebbles from Holderness, and on the Kirkstall Abbey Gatekeeper’s Lodge and Vesper Gate by your humble servant the Hon.Secretary;  on A Stamford Ware pottery kiln in Pontefract by Ian Roberts; and on Malton Museum by Ann Clark. There are a number of lecture summaries from the 2014-15 programme, and, sad as it is to report, short obituaries for section members, the late Lawrence Butler and Brian Donaghey, who did so much to promote Medieval architecture and literature respectively.

The contents were kindly seen to press by our Hon. Editor David Asquith, ably assisted by Sue Alexander and all thanks to them and the contributors for their hard work.

We will be distributing copies by post shortly but in order to save money on postage we will take copies to this Saturday’s lecture about the Gilbertines at the Swarthmore Education Centre. Please come along to enjoy the lecture and pick up your copy of Medieval Yorkshire at the same time. Remember your subscription needs to be current.