Height 6.5cm (2.6in)
Lead, silver and wood. Desk weight fashioned from a pair of elephant gun bullets mounted on a mahogany base, bearing a silver plaque inscribed 'Dervish bullets / used in elephant guns / and found in / Omdurman / September 1898’. Maker’s mark to the mounts of Andrew Barrett & Sons, Piccadilly, London. Mounts with London assay mark/
Large calibre elephant guns were generally used for hunting big game, but under the Mahdiya they appeared on the battlefield as Lieutenant Bimbashi Ahmed Hussein of the 9th Sudanese Regiment found out. He was one of the company officers who led his men into action at the Battle of Atbara in 1897 and was wounded by an elephant gun. He belonged to the Shaigiya tribe which was intensely anti-Mahdist. A number of his fellow tribesmen had fought to last with Gordon at Khartoum in 1885.