Description (Physical description)
Description for Z 2647: 'Ground polished axe'
Event Date
Author: Alana Edgeworth

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card for Z 2647: 'Polished stone axe. Length 2 7/10".'
Event Date
Author: Alana Edgeworth

Description (Physical description)
Accession Register for E 1894.47: 'A small beautifully finished and polished adze of green stone.'
Event Date 1894
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
Note for Z 2647: 'This was re-marked in 1985 by M.H. Harris as there were two items marked Z 2649 and only this one fitted description and size of Z 2647. See also 1894.47?'
Event Date 11/11/1988
Author: Alana Edgeworth

Context (Auction / Sale)
Register entry for 1894.47- 53 notes 'Briggs Collection/ Gibbons £2.0.0'

Carib stone tools collected by British planter and legislator Sir Graham Briggs (1833-1887) who owned the Farley Hill Estate on Barbados. His collections were purchased after his death from Charles Kenrick Gibbons (1856-1918). He was the son of Brigg's half sister, Anne Maxwell Hinds Jackman (1824–1902) and Lt Col. William Barton Gibbons (1892- 1872), J.P. Barbados, who were part of a family group compensated for the Sandford’s estate in Barbados following the abolition of slavery.

The National Museum of Ireland (1889), the British Museum (1889) and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (1890 & 1915), and Glasgow Museum (1890) also acquired Carib tools from Gibbons. According to letters from Gibbons the material was exhibited in 1889, presumably to potential buyers, in London at the Baker St Bazaar, Lady Brigg's Room, Kings St Entrance.
Event Date 5/11/2020
Author: rachel hand

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2022.5454 | Assessment Only
Event Date 12/10/2022
Author: Kirstie French

Context (References)
Avery, Victoria and Subryan, Jake. (2023). Black Atlantic: People Power Resistance. London: Bloomsbury. p. 48
Event Date 2023
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Loan (Exhibition)
Fitzwilliam Museum (UCM), 25/7/2023 to 7/1/2024, Enslavement & Resistance: Cambridge & the Black Atlantic
Event Date 25/7/2023
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Polished axe made of green stone. Comprising of a slightly curved cutting edge, rounded sides, a narrow curved butt end, and a truncated lens cross-section.
Event Date 6/6/2024
Author: Alana Edgeworth

Context (Analysis)
At an unknown date, this axe lost association with its original accession number (E 1894.47) and was given a Z number (Z 2647). It was matched back to its original idno based on the label affixed to the object, which matches the style of other objects accessioned in 1894 (e.g. E 1894.48) and notes that it is from the 'Briggs Coll.'. However, for some reasons when it was re-accessioned as Z 2647, it was recorded as being donated by Sir Everard im Thurn, both in the Accession Register and on the catalogue card. It is not clear how this happened, since it is labelled as from the Briggs collection; however, im Thurn and Briggs were acquainted, and Briggs did lend material from his collection to im Thurn to publish in his journal (Timehri), so it is possible that the confusion has something to do with this connection.
Event Date 6/6/2024
Author: Alana Edgeworth