3-065-832 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Queen of Ashantee's bed, 1874. The British Army in West Africa. 'The palace of King Coffee Calcallee...is the only building at Coomassie [ie Kumasi] partly constructed of stone and having two stories...The upper rooms were filled with an oddly mixed collection of furniture, ornaments, and nick-nacks, some of European, some of native African, some of Arab or Moorish manufacture. In the King's bed-room, at opposite sides, were two beds; one, upon a French tent bedstead, was appropriated to his Majesty's use; the other, on the floor level, belonged to his principal wife. These articles of household furniture are shown in the engraving. The bed-room is hung all round with blue striped calico. The floor is of clay, painted bright red, but with several low hat-shaped mounds, which are white, designed as fetish memorials of deceased Kings and Princes of the Royal family'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.