A HISTORIAN hunting for piles of African treasure and plunder has found a vital clue in an auction house in a seaside town in north Somerset.

More than 150 years ago in 1868, soldiers from Britain and British India charged into the east African mountain kingdom of Abyssinia – now better known as Ethiopia – defeated its emperor, freed his European captives, and grabbed piles of plunder including gold crowns, illuminated manuscripts and sacred carvings.

Andrew Heavens – whose book on the battle, “The Prince and the Plunder”, has just been published by The History Press – is still trying to track down all the plunder, including several intricate Ethiopian Orthodox Christian processional crosses that the commander presented to each Indian regiment after the battle.

“I have found piles of the looted Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Library, a solid gold crown in the V&A and 10 sacred carvings in the British Museum, all taken after the battle. But the crosses have been a real puzzle,” said Heavens.

There were glancing references in military reports, and an engraving of one of the crosses in the Illustrated London News. But apart from that, the trail had gone cold.

Then he found a link to an auction coming up at Clevedon Salerooms on March 9. Lot 21 is a pendant of an Ethiopian cross on a chain.

The catalogue describes it as a ‘Cross pendant, inscribed to the reverse 'Miniature of the Cross - Presented by Lord Napier - To the 18th Regt. Bombay N.I - Abyssinia - 1868', 5cm across, 26g gross approx.’

It looks like this small piece of jewellery is a reproduction of the full-sized processional cross that was plundered in Ethiopia and given to the 18th Regt.

Bombay Native Infantry as a battle trophy. The pendant is not plunder itself. It is a beautiful, miniaturized model of a piece of plunder,” said Heavens.

“Someone, maybe from the regiment, made a copy of the cross as a souvenir or a present – a bit like the way the British Museum sells keychains and trinkets of the Rosetta Stone in its gift shop. It is the first time I’ve been able to see what the cross looks like. It is hugely exciting.”

The pendant, with an estimated value of £700-£900, shows a classic square-shaped Ethiopian Orthodox cross, with Christ at the centre and depictions of Mary and angels around him.

The Holy Trinity, represented as three figures, is above his head. The long, upright line at the bottom is where the poll would have gone to carry the original cross.

Perhaps the cross was brought to the area by a local family who have ancestors who were involved in the campaign.

If anyone has any more information on the pendant, who made it and why it was made, can contact Andrew Heavens at andrew.heavens@gmail.com.

He is building up a database of all the plunder – Ethiopia’s Elgin Marbles – on the book’s website www.theprinceandtheplunder.com.