How did these objects reach London?

A museum label often ends an acquisition story with a compact word such as gift or purchase. Start one step earlier. Who held the object before that transaction, and how had they obtained it? Two objects listed as purchases can have very different histories. The British Museum grew through many such chains. Following them helps explain why objects with different origins now share a building. It also keeps their makers and original uses in the story, before the moment they became items in a London collection.