A High Carat Gold Brooch Set with an Ancient Egyptian Blue Glass Scarab.
Late Period, 26th–30th Dynasty, circa 664–332 BC.
Scarab: Ancient Egypt; Mount: 19th century.
Dimensions: 4.3 × 2.8 cm.
Weight: 17 grams.
This elegant composition features an uninscribed blue glass scarab dating to Egypt’s Late Period, securely mounted within a finely crafted 19th-century high carat gold brooch. The mount, characterised by a rope-twist border, reflects the 19th-century European revivalist interest in antiquity, particularly the Egyptianising tastes associated with the Grand Tour and the nascent field of Egyptology.
The scarab itself, though unengraved, conforms typologically to the vast corpus of Late Period amulets, which were frequently produced in faience, glazed steatite, or glass. Its bright cobalt-blue hue is consistent with known examples from the period, where innovations in glassmaking allowed for vivid pigmentation mimicking lapis lazuli. Scarabs of this nature functioned primarily as amulets, believed to carry protective and regenerative properties associated with the solar deity Khepri, the divine manifestation of the morning sun.
Provenance: Private Collection, England.
A similar blue glass scarab can be found in the collection of Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936), Science Museum Group, London, Object Number: A72725:
https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co82768/blue-glass-scarab
For Further examples of Egyptian blue gas scarabs see:
• The British Museum (EA22872): https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA22872
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Accession No. 74.51.4528): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/553150
• Christie’s (Sale 11936, Lot 68): https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5628067
Scarabs were among the most ubiquitous amuletic forms in ancient Egypt, with their iconography and materiality evolving over millennia. By the Late Period, while engraved scarabs continued to function as seals and votive offerings, uninscribed variants like the present example were more commonly used as general-purpose amulets, worn or buried with the deceased to ensure protection and rebirth. The continued use of older forms in new materials—especially glass—testifies to the enduring symbolic potency of the scarab motif across time and social strata.
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