Code: 2460
Description: A restrung length of bright blue small circular and short tubular faience beads holding eight Amarna Period bright blue flat-backed Bes pendants. Five of the pendants depict Bes playing a round circular drum, tambourine, or possibly cymbals, one depicts Bes’s face, another shows Bes holding his belly and the other shows Bes wearing a plumed headdress. The modelling rather cursory as is typical of the type. One or two pendants repaired at the loops, otherwise condition good, but the length possibly originally holding two additional pendants now lost.
Size: String 290 mm/11.4 ins. in length, the pendants 12-17 mm/0.5-0.7 in. in length
Culture: Egyptian
Date: New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period, c. 1353-1323 B.C.
Provenance: From the collection of Julian Bird (1959-2014).
Background: Julian Bird was a passionate collector of Egyptian antiquities, who built up a fine and extensive collection from the 1970s onwards. He sourced his items mainly from the UK market, from specialist dealers, fairs, markets and auctioneers. He was a model collector, carefully documenting his collection, but we do not have his notes for this particular item.
Notes: These pendants would have been worn on decorative bead collars.
