Description (Physical description)
Description for Z 19189 A-B: 'Red and gold silk costume...B: Wide trousers of the same material. Both are lined with green silk'

Event Date
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson

Description (Labels & Markings)
Stitched into the waistband is a fabric label reading: '398-69'. This has now been identified as a V&A museum number from 1869.
Event Date
Author: Clare McKenna

Description (Physical description)
Description for Z 19189 A-B: '...B: Wide pair of trousers lined with green. There is a row of metal buttons on the ankles.
Event Date 13/7/2005
Author: Clare McKenna

Context (References)
Stylianou, Nicola Stella (2012) Producing and Collecting for Empire: African Textiles in the V&A 1852-2000. PhD thesis, University of the Arts London and the Victoria and Albert Museum, p. 234-6:
'six pieces of clothing from Ethiopia that appear to go to the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge (now known as the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). All six of these textiles came to the V&A as a result of the Battle of Magdala in 1868 and four of them had belonged to Queen Terunesh... /The only evidence that these textiles were, indeed, sent to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a memo to the transit room dated 24 August 1934 asking them to ‘pack and despatch the objects in the attached list’.

The objects listed are the five Ethiopian textiles, three Chinese textiles, some Russian silk, something from the South Seas and a Hawai’ian cape. There are no records in the V&A archive relating to the transfer of these pieces so it unclear if the V&A approached the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology or vice versa.../ there were four Ethiopian pieces on the catalogue of uncertain provenance that, judging from the descriptions, seemed likely to be the ‘lost’ V&A items.

This was confirmed by a visit to Cambridge on 7 September 2010. A comparison between the V&A descriptions, which are fortunately quite detailed, of the objects and the textiles themselves confirmed beyond doubt that the four Ethiopian robes in the museum of Archaeology and Anthropology are the ones that were in the V&A. These are 395 and 396-1869 [MAA Z 19184 and MAA Z 19188] which are two silk cloaks donated to the V&A by the Secretary of State for India and that once belonged to /Queen Terunesh the wife of Emperor Tewodros of Ethiopia (see Chapter 2). The other two robes are similar 923-1873 (Z18161) and 211-1869 (Z 19185) which was sold to the V&A by a Colonel Stanton, the provenance of this robe is unquestionable as it has a small label on the hem identifying it as Stanton’s (Fig. 6.7).

Unfortunately it has not been possible to locate the final two Ethiopian objects ‘398-1869 Drawers, Silk Damask’ and ‘397-1869 Robe with sleeves’ in the MAA collection.'

This object has now been identified through its fabric label, 398-1869, as the missing Silk Damask Drawers.
Event Date 2012
Author: Clare McKenna

Description (Physical description)
Trousers of red silk damask with gold embroidery, to be worn with Z 19189 A. Consisting of a wide waistband, multiple panels across the lower body and a wide crotch, with thin legs that are each closed on the inside leg with seven round metal buttons, possibly silver on copper alloy. It has a blue silk inner lining and fastens at the waist with ribbon of coiled blue, red and yellow that terminate in loose tassels. It is decorated with bats, lanterns and beetles, with foliate pattern in gold thread.
Event Date 18/7/2024
Author: Clare McKenna

Context (Amendments / updates)
Information supplied by Nicola Stylianou, PhD student at the V&A and taken from the V&A archives, offers evidence that Z 19184-5, Z 18161 and Z 19188 [and now Z 19189 A-B] were transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum on 24/8/1934, along with other objects.
Two Ethiopian objects that Nicola Stella Stylianou identified as missing, which were identified as '398-1869 Drawers, Silk Damask’ and ‘397-1869 Robe with sleeves’ have now been found. They were previously marked as being from Myanmar. They have been found and identified, using the fabric markings inside each object, marked 397-69 [Z 19189 A] and 398-69 [Z 19189 B] respectively.
Event Date 18/7/2024
Author: Clare McKenna

Conservation (Pest Debris Removed)
CON.2015.150 | Pest Debris Removed
Event Date 18/7/2024
Author: Clare McKenna

Conservation (Freezing)
CON.2024.5990 | Freezing
Event Date 2/8/2024
Author: Anne Doering