An Egyptian Floral Bead Necklace, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, ca. 1352 - 1336 BCE

This pretty necklace of bright blue glazed faience ring beads, and gold fused cylinder beads is re-strung with representations of fruit, flowers and parts of plants that were a durable version of the elaborate perishable floral collars worn by banquet guests during the Eighteenth Dynasty. Made almost exclusively of flat-backed multicolored glazed composition, and with a suspension loop at the top and sometimes at the bottom too, they were usually strung to form an openwork broad collar. With probable amuletic significance, these floral elements were the most frequently worn pieces of jewelry among the royalty and elite during this time. Individually made in molds, the beads in this example include white lotus petals, red and blue dates, yellow mandrake fruits, flower petals in bright blue, and green, a white daisy, dom-palm leaves and grape bunches. All growing plants were inherently symbolic of new life, but some flowers also open each morning, reconfirming the idea of resurrection.

For a related example see: The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, inv. no. 31261. For further discussion, see C. Andrews, Ancient Egyptian Jewellery, London, 1990, pp. 122-3, fig. 105 (a broad collar with similar mandrake fruit found at el-Amarna.) and a collar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with similar date and lotus petal beads: acc. no. 40.2.5.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti are frequently shown wearing board collars featuring such bead pendants. For example, the Berlin bust of Nefertiti shows the queen wearing a broad collar with mandrake fruit: cf. D. Wildung (et. al.), Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Berlin, Berlin, 2010, p. 106-7, fig. 56. The small painted relief also in Berlin shows the king and queen wearing elaborate floral polychrome collars of such beads: op.cit., pp. 102-3, figs. 52-3. 

Medium: Faience

Dimensions: Length: 18.5 inches (47 cm)

Condition: Some wear to the cylindrical beads, and some ring beads are reattached to the main floral elements. Professionally restrung with a modern 18K gold clasp.  Presents well and in very good condition overall.

Provenance: Private collection of a NJ Optometrist. Ex. Sotheby Parke Bernet, 3/20/1968, lot #52 (part) and Tel-el-Amarna excavation, Philip Mitry collection (part) prior to 1970. Mitry ran the Anglo-American Bookshop (est. 1869) in Cairo, Egypt from the early 1920s and also dealt antiquities from the shop with an official license (#90) until he left for California in the 1960s, thereafter a private Hollis, Queens, NY collection, then by descent.