LONDON.- A new exhibition presents research on a fascinating medieval jug and the intriguing story of its journey from England to West Africa and back.

The Asante Ewer is one of the finest examples of bronze casting from medieval England. It has been the focus of a major research project aimed at further understanding the story of its journey to a royal palace in Ghana and the significance it held there.

Dating between 1340 and 1405, it is one of three ewers from medieval Europe known to have travelled to Ghana. The display explores the ewer’s many lives: from English luxury jug, to West African sacred vessel, and later as military loot taken by British troops during the Anglo-Asante War in 1896.

From about AD 800, trade routes across the Sahara connected West Africa with North Africa, the Mediterranean world, the Middle East and, through these regions, indirectly with Europe. From the late 1400s onwards, Atlantic maritime routes enabled direct trading networks between Europe and West Africa. These routes allowed for the exchange of luxury materials, including copper to West Africa and gold and ivory to Europe.

A photograph taken in 1884, featured in the display, shows the Asante Ewer alongside another medieval European jug in a courtyard of the royal palace of the Asantehene, the king of the Asante people, in Kumasi, present-day Ghana. Their placement in the centre of the courtyard, in what appears to be a shrine, demonstrates that they were highly prized items. Along with other imported brass, bronze or copper vessels, they played a significant role in Asante ritual life.

Their journey to England from West Africa took place during the period of British colonial expansion in West Africa. In the Gold Coast, this expansionist policy led to a series of military conflicts known as the Anglo-Asante Wars. In the aftermath of the war of 1895–96, the Asante Ewer was looted from the royal palace in Kumasi. It was subsequently purchased by the British Museum.

Key objects in the exhibition include:

The Asante Ewer

Leaded bronze, England, 1340–1405. This ewer is the largest surviving bronze jug from medieval England and one of the finest examples of medieval English bronze casting. It features an English inscription, royal coat of arms and heraldic images.

Copper alloy ewer

Europe, 1400–1500; lid, 1700–1800. Loaned by the York Army Museum, this medieval ewer also travelled to the same Asante royal courtyard as the English ewer. Its replacement brass lid was produced in West Africa. The jug was presented to the 2nd Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment by Sir William Edward Maxwell, Governor of Britain’s Gold Coast colony, in recognition of their service in the 1896 Anglo-Asante War.

Aya Kese brass basin

Ghana, 1500–1700. Loaned by the National Army Museum, this imported European brass basin originally stood outside the royal mausoleum at Bantama in Kumasi. It was looted by Robert Baden-Powell during the 1896 Anglo-Asante War.

The exhibition follows a three-year research project supported by The British Academy and the Wolfson Foundation, exploring the connections between Western Europe and West Africa during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. The age of copper, ivory and gold examines the complex networks through which materials such as gold and ivory arrived in England during the Middle Ages, as well as the movement of English objects to West Africa.

The British Museum has a long-standing cultural partnership with the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, Ghana. In May 2024, the British Museum contributed fifteen items of Asante gold regalia to the Homecoming exhibition at the Manhyia Palace Museum. This long-term loan includes objects with cultural, historical and spiritual significance to the Asante people.

The Asante Ewer was also recently on display at the York Army Museum in the British Museum Partnership Exhibition Object Journeys from 24 October 2025 to 21 February 2026, which investigated the complex and often personal motivations for military collecting.

Dr Lloyd de Beer, Curator, European Modern Collection at the British Museum, said: “The story of the Asante Ewer demonstrates the many lives that one object can have. 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.”