An Egyptian jasper grasshopper amulet bracelet

An Egyptian jasper grasshopper amulet bracelet
New Kingdom, circa 1550-1069 B.C.
Each of the fourteen amulets with linear notches at the heads and the legs indicated by a double inverted 'V' form and pierced at either end, interspersed with two rows of small yellow faience disc beads, with button clasp, re-strung as a bracelet, 20cm long

Provenance:
French art market.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 25 November 1997, lot 105.
Private collection, Europe.

Exhibited:
APM, Archaeological Museum of the University of Amsterdam, 17 November 2006-25 March 2007.

Published:
C.A.R. Andrews and J. van Dijk (eds), Objects for Eternity: Egyptian Antiquities from the W. Arnold Meijer Collection, Mainz, 2006, p. 89, no. 2.11.

For a discussion of the funerary symbolism of locust/grasshopper amulets cf. C. Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt, London, 1994, p.66; the Pyramid Texts refer to the ascent to heaven in the form of grasshoppers. Grasshoppers, due to their fecundity, may also have been associated with fertility, while their plentiful swarming activities could have been linked to abundance and wealth.

There is a New Kingdom necklace composed of almost identical carnelian grasshopper amulets on view at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, acc. no. 1987.105.