LOT 0027

Egyptian Turquoise Blue Glazed Faience Amulet of Taweret

LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.

2 3/8 in. (16.58 grams, 61 mm).

Amuletic pendant with the deity's characteristic hybrid animal elements, dominated by its hippopotamus head, with a plain dorsal pillar with a loop. [No Reserve]

Received as a gift from archaeologist Cyril Aldred, April 1970, when expecting their son Rupert.
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.124.

Cf. Petrie, W.M.F., Amulets. Illustrated by the Egyptian Collection in University College, London, 1914, pl. XL, no.236w, for a similarly large and detailed Taweret amulet.

Taweret is an ancient Egyptian goddess associated with fertility, childbirth, motherhood, and protecting women during pregnancy and labour. She is depicted as a composite being with animal features and stands out as one of the most distinctive and striking deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Taweret’s name derives from the Egyptian word for "great" or "large" (tꜣwꜣrt), emphasising her formidable and protective nature.

Cyril Aldred (1914-1991) was a British Egyptologist and art historian who served at the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, from 1937 until his retirement in 1974. He published widely on Egyptian art, including Old Kingdom Art in Ancient Egypt (1949) and Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt (1968), and became a leading authority on Amarna Period art, notably through his 1973 Brooklyn Museum exhibition catalogue, Akhenaten and Nefertiti.