Egyptian Jasper Funerary Scarab

Late-Ptolemaic Period, 664-30 BC. A naturalistic black jasper funerary scarab, carved in the round with detailing to the head, carapace and legs; large fan-shaped clypeus, the prothorax marked by a row of decorative hemispheres and the elytra of several vertical lines; ribbed suspension loop beneath. See The Metropolitan Museum, accession number 89.2.398, for comparable; Petrie, W.M.F., Amulets, London, 1914. 47 grams, 53mm (2"). Property of a London gentleman; before that in the private collection of a Kensington collector; previously in the collection of Mrs Petra Schamelman, Breitenbach, Germany; acquired from the collection of Fernand Adda, formed in the 1920s; accompanied by an academic report by Dr Alberto Maria Pollastrini and a scholarly note no.TL5392 by Dr Ronald Bonewitz; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10845-178140. The scarab beetle’s behaviour of rolling large dung balls was associated by the ancient Egyptians with the movement of the sun through the sky. They also thought that this beetle generated spontaneously in the ground. The belief in the scarab’s self-generation and its association with the sun god made it a potent amulet that was thought to bear the power of life and regeneration. [A video of this lot can be viewed on the Timeline Auctions website]
Condition Report: Fine condition.