A new title in the British Museum's Object in Focus series that analyzes the history of a fascinating vessel and its journey from medieval England to West Africa and back. The 14th-century metal ewer, known today as the Asante Ewer, bears a remarkable story. Crafted in medieval England, it was transported to West Africa, likely at some point between the 15th and 17th centuries. By the 19th century, it was housed in a court belonging to the Asantehene, the king of the Asante in Kumasi, in present-day Ghana.

During extensive looting by British forces after the so-called Fourth Anglo-Asante War of 1896, the ewer was removed from the royal building and eventually purchased by the British Museum. This book provides a detailed approach to this object, which is one of the most exceptional examples of late medieval silversmithing in England.

It also explores the significance of the vessel both in European and African contexts - from the intricate medieval symbolic motifs associated with English royalty decorating it, to its potential connections with the ivory and gold trade across the Sahara and the West African coast. Finally, this publication addresses the collecting practices of the 19th century and their inextricable links to colonization, as well as how the ewer has historically been presented within a European framework and is now being reevaluated to include its African history.