3-021-321 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Relics from Abyssinia: handle of King Theodore's seal, 1868. One of the '...objects of interest and value which formed part of the spoil captured by the British army at the storming of Magdala, and which have been secured for the British Museum...It is said to have been made in England, and sent as a present by Bishop Gobat, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, to King Theodore. The work on the handle of the seal, and in fact all the work, except the seal itself, is evidently European; but the style of art in which the lion of Ethiopia is executed is clearly the production of quite another school. Both this and the inscription were no doubt done at Jerusalem or in Egypt. The handle of the seal is formed of four kinds of stone - namely, lapis lazuli, blood stone, red cornelian, and white cornelian. These are clasped together by four bands of gold with chased ornament. The seal is of solid gold, richly chased. It bears an Amharic inscription: "Negoosa Negyst Theodros Za Ethiopia," which is translated, "King of Kings, Theodros of Ethiopia;" and an Arabic inscription, "Theodros Melek El-Habesh," which is, simply, "Theodros, King of Habesh, or Abyssinia." We are told that the letter of Theodore to the Queen [ie Victoria] had this seal upon it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.