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LOT 0662
Egyptian Bright Blue Faience Eye of Horus Amulet
NEW KINGDOM, 1504-1450 B.C.
3/4 in. (0.77 grams, 18 mm).
Turquoise-glazed wedjat-eye, carved on one face; pierced longitudinally. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceExcavated from Egypt in 1914.
From the private collection of Mr David Sams and his wife Elizabeth Kate Sams, gentry and amateur archaeologists who travelled to Egypt in 1914 with their daughter Ethel. Mr Sams and his wife led digging expeditions from which these items come, from the family estate of Mr and Mrs Sams, by direct descent to their granddaughter.
The wedjat-eye amulet depicts Horus’s healed eye, blending human and falcon features. Its ancient Egyptian name means ‘the one that is sound’. Myth says Seth wounded or took the eye, and Thoth later restored it. Believed to offer protection, healing, and regeneration, the popular amulet was worn by the living and the dead.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0662
Egyptian Bright Blue Faience Eye of Horus Amulet
Estimate £100 - 140€120 - 160 (for guidance only)$140 - 190 (for guidance only)
Opening Bid
£5 (EUR 6; USD 7) +BP*
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Egyptian Faience Amulet in the Shape of a Striding Monkey
Late Period, 664-332 B.C.Estimate: £1,200 - 1,700 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £675
Formed as a striding African savannah monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops), or grivet, with human proportions but monkey hair texture; long arms hanging close to the body, hands extended downward; an incised belt at the waist; a suspension loop at the reverse (repaired); with a custom-made stand. 68.9 grams total, amulet: 57 mm, 13.5 cm high including stand
Private collection of an English amateur archaeologist (1849-1927), thence by descent. with Bonhams Auction, 5 October 2011, no.360. Thereafter, private collection of Erika (1934-2025) and Jakob (1927-2025) Binkert, Binningen, Switzerland; acquired in 2012 from Jean-David Cahn AG, exhibition Aegyptiaca, Basel. Thence by descent.
In the minds of the ancient Egyptians, male monkeys' behaviour may have linked them to masculinity, suggesting that, when worn as an amulet, they could have served a magical role in the reproductive cycle, facilitating birth in this life and rebirth in the afterlife. Alternatively, the prolonged care that females provide for their offspring may have linked the monkey with maternal protection and fertility. These associations may have been reinforced here by the monkey’s greenish faience, which symbolised renewal. -
Egyptian Coptic Textile Fragment of a Tunic Tablion with Hare
Circa 6th-7th century A.D.Estimate: £40 - 60 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £5
Comprising a tablion in coarse wool of red, green, yellow, violet and blue over white linen, scalloped borders, tapestry work (S-twist), featuring an animal (hare?) inside a square, surrounded by vegetal ornaments. 5.59 grams, 10.5 cm
Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.
The tabula, or tablion, was a square embroidery used to decorate tunics or mantles. The theme of rabbits or hares, in association with other characters and animals of the Dionysian Thiasos, has notable parallels. Such representations are linked to narratives of the Dionysian cycle. -
Egyptian Coptic Tunic and Tapestry Textile Fragments with Animals and Geometric Ornamets
Circa 7th-8th century A.D.Estimate: £80 - 100 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £5
Comprising: a tapestry fragment (part of a pillow?) decorated with red bands and alternating figures of cups in green, red, blue, purple and yellow wool on linen; a large fragment of a segmentum from a tunic in coarse wool, consisting of a central medallion with a bird in red, yellow, light blue and yellow colour, with the borders decorate with meanders, tapestry, S-swift; a large portion of a tapestry with a central medallion ornamented with animals (lion, fish, birds) surrounded on the outside by dancing human figures and birds, one side circumscribed by a red stripe with vegetal ornaments, in red, blue-purple and yellow wool. 27 grams total, 15-22 cm
Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.
Large fragments of Coptic textiles display figures associated with the Dionysian retinue (lions, birds); however, they may date to the early period of the Islamic conquest, when tunic ornamentation began to take on an increasingly abstract and geometric character, preserving only stylised traces of the ancient Pagan symbology.
