Egypt, New Kingdom/Third Intermediate Period, ca. 1550 to 712 BCE. An incredible bronze wing with brightly-colored glass inlays. This is most likely a large fragment from a pectoral, one of the decorative amulets that protected a mummy. The wing has three levels of feathers: smaller, round ones near the top and closer in to where the body would have been, inlaid with white opaque glass, slightly larger, longer ones with inlays of the classic pale blue-green faience glass, and an exterior layer of long, thin feathers terminating in pointed tips, with dark green and blue opaque glass inlays. Lightly translucent red glass inlays radiate from the tip of each wing. Size: 5" W x 2.8" H (12.7 cm x 7.1 cm); 4.45" H (11.3 cm) on included custom stand.

What was this wing originally a part of, and what was its meaning? The figure of the winged sun was associated with royalty and divinity in both Egypt and the great civilizations of the ancient Near East, often just two spread wings on either side of a disc or god form. The pattern of the feathers here looks almost identical to a gold and precious gemstone pendant in the Louvre (accession number: E 80). This pendant, from the tomb of a sacred bull located at Saqqara, is in the form of a falcon with a ram's head, with outstretched wings and legs, identical to a deity seen in the Book of Caverns (from the New Kingdom) and on some tombs from the Ramesside Period (ca. 1292 to 1069 BCE). The Book of Caverns tells the tale of the sun god as he travels from cavern to cavern in the underworld before being resurrected in the sky with the coming of the day. The presence of the sun god's pendant - of which this wing was likely a part - would have ensured rebirth after death for the person or animal whose grave it marked.

Provenance: private Florida, USA collection acquired before 1990

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#126107

Wing is a fragment from a larger piece. Deep turquoise patina on bronze surfaces. Remaining glass in some of the inlays, especially the red.