A new exhibition at the British Museum will examine the remarkable history of the Asante Ewer, a medieval English bronze jug that travelled from England to West Africa before returning to Britain in the wake of colonial warfare. The display will present new research on the object and explore how it moved through very different cultural settings over the course of several centuries.
Dating to between 1340 and 1405, the Asante Ewer is considered one of the finest examples of medieval English bronze casting. It is also one of only three known medieval European ewers to have made their way to Ghana. The exhibition traces its changing roles over time, from a luxury vessel made in England to a sacred object in the royal palace of the Asante kingdom, and finally to an item taken during the Anglo-Asante War of 1896.
The display also places the ewer within the wider networks that linked West Africa with North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and, indirectly, Europe from around AD 800 onward. Later, from the late fifteenth century, Atlantic maritime routes enabled more direct trade between Europe and West Africa. These long-distance connections helped move goods such as copper to West Africa, while gold and ivory travelled toward Europe.
“The story of the Asante Ewer demonstrates the many lives that one object can have,” says Dr Lloyd de Beer, Curator of European Modern Collection at the British Museum. “Its extraordinary journey from England to West Africa and back highlights the extent of Africa’s global pre-modern connections and the changing significance of such objects as they travel across continents.”
One of the key pieces of evidence featured in the exhibition is a photograph taken in 1884 showing the Asante Ewer alongside another medieval European jug in a courtyard of the royal palace of the Asantehene, the ruler of the Asante people, in Kumasi, in present-day Ghana. Their position in what appears to be a shrine at the centre of the courtyard suggests that these imported vessels had become highly valued items within Asante ritual life.
Their return to Britain came during the era of imperial expansion in West Africa. After the Anglo-Asante War of 1895–96, the Asante Ewer was looted from the royal palace in Kumasi and later purchased by the British Museum. The exhibition will also include another medieval European ewer, now on loan from the York Army Museum, as well as an imported brass basin from Ghana that was likewise taken during the conflict.
Titled The age of copper, ivory and gold: England and West Africa in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, the exhibition follows a three-year research project supported by The British Academy and the Wolfson Foundation. The project has explored the links between Western Europe and West Africa during the Middle Ages and early modern period, with a focus on the movement of materials such as gold and ivory to England, and English-made objects to West Africa.
The exhibition also reflects the British Museum’s continuing partnership with the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi. In May 2024, the museum contributed fifteen items of Asante gold regalia to the Homecoming exhibition there through a long-term loan.
A new exhibition at the British Museum will examine the remarkable history of the Asante Ewer, a medieval English bronze jug that travelled from England to West Africa before returning to Britain in the wake of colonial warfare. The display will present new research on the object and explore how it moved through very different cultural settings over the course of several centuries.
Dating to between 1340 and 1405, the Asante Ewer is considered one of the finest examples of medieval English bronze casting. It is also one of only three known medieval European ewers to have made their way to Ghana. The exhibition traces its changing roles over time, from a luxury vessel made in England to a sacred object in the royal palace of the Asante kingdom, and finally to an item taken during the Anglo-Asante War of 1896.
The display also places the ewer within the wider networks that linked West Africa with North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and, indirectly, Europe from around AD 800 onward. Later, from the late fifteenth century, Atlantic maritime routes enabled more direct trade between Europe and West Africa. These long-distance connections helped move goods such as copper to West Africa, while gold and ivory travelled toward Europe.
“The story of the Asante Ewer demonstrates the many lives that one object can have,” says Dr Lloyd de Beer, Curator of European Modern Collection at the British Museum. “Its extraordinary journey from England to West Africa and back highlights the extent of Africa’s global pre-modern connections and the changing significance of such objects as they travel across continents.”
One of the key pieces of evidence featured in the exhibition is a photograph taken in 1884 showing the Asante Ewer alongside another medieval European jug in a courtyard of the royal palace of the Asantehene, the ruler of the Asante people, in Kumasi, in present-day Ghana. Their position in what appears to be a shrine at the centre of the courtyard suggests that these imported vessels had become highly valued items within Asante ritual life.
Their return to Britain came during the era of imperial expansion in West Africa. After the Anglo-Asante War of 1895–96, the Asante Ewer was looted from the royal palace in Kumasi and later purchased by the British Museum. The exhibition will also include another medieval European ewer, now on loan from the York Army Museum, as well as an imported brass basin from Ghana that was likewise taken during the conflict.
Titled The age of copper, ivory and gold: England and West Africa in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, the exhibition follows a three-year research project supported by The British Academy and the Wolfson Foundation. The project has explored the links between Western Europe and West Africa during the Middle Ages and early modern period, with a focus on the movement of materials such as gold and ivory to England, and English-made objects to West Africa.
The exhibition also reflects the British Museum’s continuing partnership with the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi. In May 2024, the museum contributed fifteen items of Asante gold regalia to the Homecoming exhibition there through a long-term loan.
The exhibition started on March 5th and runs until June 7th. Click here to learn more.
Top Image: The Asante Ewer. Bronze jug, made in England, between 1340 and 1405. © 2026 The Trustees of the British Museum
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