Description (CMS Description)
Gold ring in the shape of a mud or catfish called 'i Optiri'. Chief's ring.
Event Date 23/10/2015
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Notes by Arthur Spooner typed by his wife, Sylvia read: 'Gold ring in the shape of a Mud fish. Bought between 1932 and 1934 in Kumasi from a gold-smith who made it. ì Opitiri is a cat-fish and it would be a chief’s ring. [Given to sister and bought back off her £150, later]'
Notes by Edward T Spooner: 'The gold mudfish ring was bought by my father from his sister! He had given it to her as a present probably in the ‘30’s, but she was never that interested! Her name was Dorothea Spooner, later Bremridge.
There appears to be some duplication of Spooner's collection numbers as multiple items are labelled 42 either physically or in the accompanying photographs. This object mount was labelled 46. R. v.d. Velden, 23/10/2015.
Event Date 23/10/2015
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
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 23/10/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
See Spooner photo no. 30 in Collection file for object in Spooner family home.
Event Date 26/10/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Research Visit (Anthropology)
RES.2018.2453 | XRF analysis of the gold content of West African artefacts as part of a pilot project to assess the variability of geochemical data. This is part of a larger project to analyse the globular solidi" coins, produced by the Byzantine mint at Carthage during the seventh century AD, which have been suggested by David Phillipson were made from metal that had been transported from sub-Sahara West Africa.
Event Date 24/10/2018
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Exhibited: on display in the reworked West Africa case, (No. 27), Maudslay Hall from April 2018.
Event Date 2/4/2018
Author: rachel hand

Context (Analysis)
The ring appears to have been cast in 2 parts, with one section encompassing the head, with a higher gold content, with the other part encompassing the darker section running from the curved side of the mudfish to the tail and including the ring element which has comparable zinc and copper components. This may indicate a repair or a fault in the casting process meaning it needed two separate casts. The head of fish also has fine lines across the head indicating the mould cracked at the time the molten metal was poured into the mould, rather than when the mould was cracked when the metal was cooled.
From comments from Prof Marcos Martinon-Torres during PXRF analysis.
Event Date 5/4/2018
Author: rachel hand

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2018.4181 | Assessment Only
Event Date 11/9/2018
Author: Kirstie Williams

Context (Amendments / updates)
'Asante' has been added to the cultural group field.
Event Date 29/3/2021
Author: Benjamina Dadzie