?Armitage, Cecil (Sir) [?original collector]; ?Cockin, Maurice [?original collector]; Cecilia Barclay Collection; Barclay, Gordon (Dr.)[donor]
Christie, Mason & Woods, Ltd (1981) Valuation for Insurance African Art [for Mrs Celia Barclay], notes 'A Benin small figure holding a cup on the head which is cast with a mask, 9.5 cm high'. (cf. Cockin Collection Object history file for copy of the list).
See the London periodical, Donne, J.B. (1972). "The Celia Barclay collection of African art". The Connoisseur, June 1972, Vol. 180, No. 724, pp.88-95.
This collection was given to MAA by Dr Gordon Barclay, husband of the late Celia Barclay who inherited the collection in 1961 from her father, Maurice Cockin, an administrator in Nigeria (Owo and Ishan area) between 1911 and 1914. After his return to England, Cockin acquired the large collection formed by Sir Cecil Hamilton Armitage (1869-1933) army officer and later commissioner in Ghana (Ashanti and Northern Territories) between 1895 and 1920.
The circumstances that led to Cockin acquiring Armitage's collection are unclear. Toby Barclay (son of Dr Gordon Barclay who visited MAA on 2/2/2010) recalled that around the First World War, Maurice and Alys Cockin had been invited to a cocktail party where they met Cecil Armitage and his wife. Cockin discussed his small collection and Armitage mentioned he was fed up with housing several thousand objects and was going to burn them. Cockin offered to purchase the collection for 100 Guineas. They were later delivered to him in a dozen or more horse carts. Another version appears in Christie's 16/7/1975 PrimitiveArt auction catalogue: '[Maurice Cockin] purchased the remaining collection of Sir Cecil Armitage soon after the latter's death in March 1933' (1975: 5). A third version is given by Donne (1972:91), on Armitage's death in 1933 some pieces were sold to the British Museum, but ‘the remainder was sold sight unseen to Mrs Cockin for £100, as a result of a chance encounter with a dealer; the dealer had been on the point of putting all the woodwork on the bonfire in despair at not being able to sell it’ (Donne 1972:p.91).
The collection was kept together until Celia Barclay donated [?SOLD] the bulk of it to the British Museum in 1978 and 1984. What Celia Barclay kept was displayed in her small museum formed of a large exhibition room and smaller adjacent room used as 'visible storage', fitted with racks and shelves from top to bottom.
The collection was never systematically catalogued and, as far as Toby Barclay knows, there is no way of distinguishing between the Cockin and Armitage Collection. It seems, however, that the Armitage collection formed the bulk of what passed down to Mrs Celia Barclay and her heirs. Lists of objects were produced much later (by the British Museum and Christie's), long after Maurice Cockin had passed away. The majority of her African collection were purchased by the British Museum in 1978 and 1984, and small other groups were sold at auction
Given Maurice Cockin was only based in Nigeria, it is likely that the Ghanaian material in Celia Barcklay's collection originated with Armitage. There are various labels attached to objects which may be Armitage labels, but their meaning and original references are obscure.
In the case of gold weights these may related to the physical weight of the item on the Islamic or Ghanian scales.
Thought to be collected by Sir Cecil Armitage (1868-1933) a British a colonial officer in West Africa from the 1890s. He was one of first two District Commissioners in Asante (with Wilfred Bennett Davidson-Houston, whose collection is in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin). Armitage took part in the Ashanti expeditionof 1895, then as army officer and later as Commissioner in the Gold Coast. He was Chief Commissioner of the Northern Territories of Nigeria 1911-20, then Governor-General of Gambia 1921-27.
He made large collections throughout his time in Ghana and Gambia. He gave groups of Ghanaian material to the British Museum in 1915 and 1919, and other pieces from Gambia in 1924. On his retirement he formed his own small museum which he displayed at home. Parts of his collections were acquired by Maurice Cockin, and subsequently by the British Museum from Cockin's daughter Mrs Celia Barclay in 1978.