Context (Related Documents)
Label removed from base: '38'


Event Date
Author: Katrina Dring

Context (Related Documents)
See Spooner photo no. 12 in Collection file for object in Spooner family home.
Event Date
Author: Remke van der Velden

Description (Physical description)
Notes by Arthur Spooner typed by his wife, Sylvia read: 'Gentleman sitting with pipe, Yoruba, a Butler gift.' R. v.d. Velden, 23/10/2015.
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Carved dark wooden figure of a gentleman sitting on a stool smoking a pipe. A white paper label on the bottom of the base with the number '38' written on it indicates the Spooner Collection number.
Event Date 23/10/2015
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
The Spooner Collection was acquired by Arthur Casswell Spooner (1906-1996) during his colonial service in West Africa between 1929-1963, and also by his wife Sylvia from 1944. Following the Cambridge Colonial Service diploma (Clare College, 1928-9), he was posted to the Gold Coast in July 1929 as a Cadet in the Administrative Service. He was soon appointed Assistant District Commissioner and served in various areas of Ashanti and the Northern Territories until 1938. His tasks comprised office and court work as well as much travelling through the district.

In 1939 Spooner was seconded as Commissioner of the Labour Department in Kumasi, and in 1942 was appointed Assistant Director of Labour, General Headquarters West African Command, involved in raising Pioneer Groups in Sierra Leone and Nigeria primarily for the North African campaign. He was a member of the Gold Coast Defence Force and in 1942 appointed as a temporary Lieutenant Colonel. He married Sylvia Blest in Accra in 1944 and she accompanied him on all his postings. In 1945 he returned to the Administrative Service, and was appointed Senior District Commissioner, Ashanti, in 1946 and in 1951 Assistant Chief Commissioner of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast He retired in 1952, returning to the UK to work for Eastbury Estates Ltd.

He returned to Africa in 1956, working for the Gambian Government in the Establishments and Training Department until 1959. From 1961 to 1963 he was employed by the Government of Northern Nigeria to run the Resident's offices in Makurdi and Ilorin.

Following discussion with MAA from 2005 onwards the object and photograph collections were donated in 2015 by Sylvia's son Professor Edward T. Spooner per the Spooner family, with material also going to the teaching collections.

Arthur Spooner's correspondence and papers, 1928-95, are held at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Several items (including Konkomba dancing hats), copies of photographs and their associated copyright and a telegram relevant to the purchase of Sylvia Spooner's wedding ring were also given to the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum c.2008.
Event Date 26/10/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Description (Physical description)
Figure carved from wood. Seated male figure with crossed legs smoking a pipe; sitting on a rectangular wooden stool with four legs connected at the base; figure wears armlets and a cap decorated with carved designs. Splits in wood of right arm, leg and stool.
Event Date 6/10/2021
Author: Katrina Dring