Fiddle made with small calabash bowl as the body, covered with animal skin, which is held by small sharp sticks visible from a hole in the animal cover. The neck of the fiddle is made of a long, rounded and lacquered stick, which is protruding into the calabash, and held to it with cloth and animal skin. The strings on the neck are made of animal hairs, some of which are now discoloured.
Given the uncertainty of the place of collection, Ghana and Benin City have been added to the place field with queries, as have Edo and Asante in the cultural group field
Mrs Francis Collins married in 1896, a year before the Benin Expedition and there is no record of her being married before. The majority of the objects, initially accessioned as coming from Benin City, have been later identified as Asante.
It is likely, therefore, that Captain Jackson served in one of the Expeditionry Forces of the Anglo-Ashanti wars.
Catalogue card reads, in black ink: "39.175 | Benin / (a) Fiddle / (b) bow (metal frame). / Taken in the West African Field Expeditionto Benin by a Capt. Jackson [see Letter 20/1/39.] d.d. W.W. Collins."
Added in second hand, black ink after IDNO: "Nigeria"
Red circular sticker on bottom right of card, with "A" and B" written next to it.
Given by W. W Collins. See Letter 20/1/1939 in MAA archives
Acquisition Details/1
Noted by the donor William Wiehé Collins, as belonging to the wife of his late brother, Mr Francis Collins, which had been collected by her first husband, who had served in the Benin Expedition
Acquisition Details/2
Donated by William Wiehé Collins, an English landscape painter.