19 - A GROUP OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FAIENCE SCARAB AND DISC BEADS AND AMULETS (8)

A GROUP OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FAIENCE SCARAB AND DISC BEADS AND AMULETS (8) Comprising four scarab beads (three green-glazed and one reddish-brown), two small Egyptian blue melon beads, and two discs, one blue-glazed, with traces of former decoration. In faience and steatite. Gross weight: 9.20g (total) All pieces are structurally sound and intact, retaining their original shapes, with no modern breakage. The green glaze remains and in vivid hue. There is localised abrasion as to be expected, with the group being offered in good condition. Provenance Private collection, San Francisco Bay Area, California, acquired in the second half of the 20th century Thence by descent to the present owner The material 'faience' is closely associated with ancient Egypt. It is made from crushed quartz or sand, mixed together with small amounts of lime and plant ash, and then moulded into beads, amulets and small vessels. The different colours, often of blue and green occur as a result of firing the beads with copper. This glazing was referred to by the Egyptians as 'tjehenet', meaning 'dazzling', and it carried distinctive meanings of new vegetation and rebirth, evoking the fertile Nile. Amulets, as throughout history, were worn by the living and placed with the dead for protection. Among the most recognisable was the wedjat, the Eye of Horus, which according to myth was torn out in the god's struggle with Seth and magically restored. It became a symbol of healing, wholeness and protection. The scarab beetle, was likened to the god Khepri pushing the sun across the sky each morning, and it came to embody renewal and rebirth. From the Middle Kingdom onward, scarabs served both as amulets and as personal seals, their flat undersides engraved with names, titles, protective signs and decorative designs. Faience beads were produced in enormous numbers. In the Late Period, wrapped mummies were often covered with nets of tubular and disc beads, and it is from such sources that many of the beads known today derive. Few ancient necklaces survive on their original threads, so most have been restrung in modern times, often by collectors. Interest in them grew sharply after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, which inspired a wave of Egyptian taste in jewellery and design throughout the interwar years.