Details

LOT 255440

Egyptian Mixed Scarab Collection

2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C. AND LATER

1/2 - 1 3/8 in. (36.9 grams total, 14-35 mm).

Stone plaque with raised relief depictions of the Apis bull and a falcon deity beneath; a mixed group of scarabs and scaraboids, most bearing text or motifs on the underside, including: a rope border enclosing the head of a lion wearing a sun disc and uraeus; a plain gold scaraboid; a line border enclosing the throne name of Amenhotep III (neb-maat-Re); an indeterminate standing figure; a central hes- vase flanked by rearing cobras; a group of hieroglyphs, perhaps a slightly incorrect spelling of the throne name of Amenhotep II (akheperu-Re); and a group of four hieroglyphs. [8]

Provenance

From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.

Literature

For scarabs of Amenhhotep II (1449-1423 B.C.) cf. Ward, J., The Sacred Beetle, a Popular treatise on Egyptian Scarabs in Art and History,London, 1902, pp.58ff. and nos.375ss.

Footnotes

The usual epithets for Amenhotep II on his scarabs are ‘good god’, ‘Lord of two lands’, ‘beloved of Amen’ or ‘beloved of Amen Ra’. A complete epithet is ‘Ankh neter nefer āa ‘Kheperu’ Ra, neb tawi = Live the good god, lord of the two lands, Amenhotep’.