Object in Focus: The Asante Ewer

We're delighted to welcome curator and author Lloyd de Beer to the bookshop for our first British Museum lecture of 2026, Object in Focus: The Asante Ewer. This book accompanies the exciting new exhibition which will feature at The British Museum in March this year.

The fourteenth-century metal jug today popularly known as the Asante Ewer has a remarkable story. It was made in medieval England but transported to West Africa and, by the nineteenth century, was located in a courtyard associated with the royal palace of the Asantehene in Kumasi (present-day Ghana). During widespread looting by British forces in 1896, the ewer was removed from the royal building and subsequently purchased by the British Museum.

This book includes a detailed close reading of the object itself, which is one of the finest examples of late medieval English bronze casting. It also explores the significance of the vessel in both European and African contexts – from the intricate medieval symbolism to its potential connections with the trade in ivory and gold across the Sahara and the West African coast.

This publication addresses collecting practices of the nineteenth century and their inextricable links with colonialism and includes new research published for the first time and important new photography, such as previously unpublished images of object records and historical correspondence.

Lloyd de Beer is Curator of Modern European Collections, 1800–Present at the British Museum.