Egyptian Stone Age Knapped Ovate Hand Axe from Thebes

Slender, lentoid form with a finely striated edge design; the main motif comprises four outward-facing uraei, one in each quadrant, with a sun disc at each end, mounted in a modern gold ring. 2.33 grams, 22.62 mm overall, 16.76 mm internal diameter (approximate size British M, USA 6, Europe 12.46, Japan 12)



Private collection, London.

With a putto flying over a red woven surface, in red, green, and yellow wool, S-twist tapestry. 26 grams total, 52 mm



Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.

Among the many fragments of wool tunics, there are several long strips that match to form a nearly full-length central pectoral clavi. They were patterned with a profusion of small figures like this flying putto, kept in one orbiculus (round embroidery), forming the finial of a clavus.

Ellipsoid in plan with an impressed cartouche for 'Tutankhamun, ruler of Hermonthis'. 6.5 grams, 29 mm



Acquired Caledonian market, November 1958, for 2 shillings and sixpence. From the private collection of Peter Clayton, FCILIP, Dip, Arch, FSA, FRNS, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK; formed since the late 1950s. Accompanied by an old handwritten information card by Peter Clayton, collection no.50.

Moulds like this were often used to produce faience ring bezels (cf. Seyfried, F. (ed.), In the Light of Amarna: 100 Years of the Nefertiti Discovery, Berlin, 2012, p. 100, fig. 2, for an example of a similar mould and a faience ring bezel for Akhenaten). Hermonthis, also known as Armant, was called ı͗wnu-šmꜤw by the ancient Egyptians and regarded as the southern counterpart to the solar temple complex at Heliopolis.