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Lot Essay
This fine stirrup-shaped signet ring would have been used either by the king himself or given by him to a high official with the authority to act on his behalf. As visible by the wear on the oval bezel, it is clear that this ring was used as a seal, probably for royal administrative documents. Solid cast stirrup rings replaced earlier seal types with swivel bezels, as the sturdy form better suited the function for which it was intended. This tradition began at the end of the 18th Dynasty and continued into the 19th. For a gold stirrup ring from the reign of Akhenaten, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, see no. 98 in R.E. Freed, et al., eds., Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, and another from the reign of Ramesses IV, now in the Brooklyn Museum, see cat. 335 in M. Eaton-Krauss in Egypt's Golden Age.
Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver whose colors vary from greenish-yellow to silvery-grey. Gold of high purity was not easy to cast, so adding silver or copper helped avoid defects due to excessive porosity. Electrum and silver were considered more desirable than gold before the New Kingdom, whereas the much redder color of copper-gold alloys was preferred for stirrup rings during the Amarna and immediate post-Amarna period (see pp. 163-164 in J. Ogden, "Metals" in P.T. Nicholson and I. Shaw, eds., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology). This ring was cast through the lost wax method, while the bezel was engraved using iron or copper tools.
At the center of the oval bezel is the Horus falcon wearing the Double Crown, the symbol of the monarchy’s task to unite Upper and Lower Egypt. The feathers and facial markings are finely detailed. In front of the falcon, a rearing cobra wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt is the uraeus protector of the Crown. Behind the falcon is a cobra looped over the sun disc with an ankh around its neck, invoking the sun god Ra. Below are the two horizontal lines and the basket hieroglyph, which together can be read as ‘neb tawy’, meaning Lord of the Two Lands, an epithet of the pharaoh. The composition is exquisitely executed and balanced and is reminiscent of other masterpieces from the end of the 18th Dynasty, including a gold example with the throne name of Ay in Leiden, no. 147 in H.D. Schneider and M.J. Raven, Life and Death Under the Pharaohs, Egyptian Art from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver whose colors vary from greenish-yellow to silvery-grey. Gold of high purity was not easy to cast, so adding silver or copper helped avoid defects due to excessive porosity. Electrum and silver were considered more desirable than gold before the New Kingdom, whereas the much redder color of copper-gold alloys was preferred for stirrup rings during the Amarna and immediate post-Amarna period (see pp. 163-164 in J. Ogden, "Metals" in P.T. Nicholson and I. Shaw, eds., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology). This ring was cast through the lost wax method, while the bezel was engraved using iron or copper tools.
At the center of the oval bezel is the Horus falcon wearing the Double Crown, the symbol of the monarchy’s task to unite Upper and Lower Egypt. The feathers and facial markings are finely detailed. In front of the falcon, a rearing cobra wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt is the uraeus protector of the Crown. Behind the falcon is a cobra looped over the sun disc with an ankh around its neck, invoking the sun god Ra. Below are the two horizontal lines and the basket hieroglyph, which together can be read as ‘neb tawy’, meaning Lord of the Two Lands, an epithet of the pharaoh. The composition is exquisitely executed and balanced and is reminiscent of other masterpieces from the end of the 18th Dynasty, including a gold example with the throne name of Ay in Leiden, no. 147 in H.D. Schneider and M.J. Raven, Life and Death Under the Pharaohs, Egyptian Art from the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, The Netherlands.