Egyptian Offering Cup Fragment Group

A group of three restrung faience mummy bead necklaces, each comprising multiple strands of polychrome beads including annular and tubular types. 84 grams total, 60-70 cm long



Acquired before 1979. From the private collection of Mr F. A., South Kensington, London, UK; thence by descent 2014.

A spherical ceremonial stone mace head; centrally drilled; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 322 grams total, 87 mm high including stand



From an old UK collection. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016) part 2, keen Egyptologist, member of the Egyptology Society, trustee of the Amarna Trust; thence by descent. Accompanied by an identification display card. Accompanied by a copy of his obituary published in Horizon, The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust newsletter, Issue 18, 2017, p.21, by Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directing excavations at Amarna in Egypt.

Mace heads were prized to such a degree that they were carried by chieftains as sceptres.

A bronze figure of the cat goddess Bastet, squatting poised and alert with her tail wrapped close to right side of her body, seated on a tongue-shaped base, short lug below; accompanied by a custom-made display base. 137 grams total, 10 cm high including stand



Acquired 1980s. Private collection of L.H., Staffordshire, UK. Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.

Bastet was a powerful goddess of Lower Egypt, one who was protective and could bring about great prosperity. Cat statuettes were among some of the most common zoomorphic dedications of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Small statuettes like this one would have been dedicated as offerings to temples or deposited in catacombs alongside cat mummies, as at the extensive catacombs at Bubastis and Saqqara. Sometimes larger hollow examples held a cat mummy inside.