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LOT 0480
Large Egyptian Blue Faience Scarab
750-332 B.C.
2 in. (19.5 grams, 50 mm).
With boldly indicated head, clypeus, prothorax, and elytra; flat underside; holes at the head, back, and sides for attachment.
Provenancewith Beaussant Lefèvre, 17 November 2015, no.48.
Acquired by the present owner from the above.
Cf. Lacovara, P., and Markowitz, Y.J., Jewels of the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Treasures from the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester MA, 2020,p.122 no.20, for a similar scarab.
FootnotesScarabs were often used as funerary amulets and were believed to symbolise the rebirth and regeneration of the deceased.
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AUCTIONS:
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Flowers were symbolic of rebirth due to the daily reopening of their petals after nightfall. As a result, they were widely used in domestic settings, religious and funerary contexts, and as adornments. Similar rosette discs, like those recovered from the Ramesside Period palace at Qantir, were used as decorative elements in royal palaces. -
Egyptian Faience Beaded Mummy Mask with Sons of Horus
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Restrung netted beadwork panel of annular and tubular glazed composition beads in blues, greens, black, cream and red-brown colours, depicting a mummy face-mask with false beard, a scarab with extended wings below, the 'Four Sons of Horus’ beneath the scarab, joined together with areas of open netting of tubular beads; restrung with some later beads. 72 grams, 26 cm
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The Four Sons of Horus were deities responsible for protecting the internal organs of the deceased. Here, on the left, we can see the jackal-headed Duamutef, who protected the stomach, followed by the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, protector of the intestines, then the human-headed Imsety, who protected the liver and, finally, the baboon-headed Hapy, protected the lungs, on the right. -
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