An Egyptian Openwork Amarna Ring with Wedjat Eye in Erie, Pennsylvania For Sale

View images at: $1,250 An Egyptian Openwork Amarna Ring with Wedjat Eye
This is a wonderful and rare faience ring displaying an openwork wedjat-eye. The ring dates to the New Kingdom, late 18th dynasty, more specifically the Amarna period. During this period many faience rings were made, as evidenced by the hundreds recovered from the excavations in Amarna.Very few of them were of the openwork type, and even fewer have survived fully intact and with such fine, sharp detailing.Rings like this were manufactured from two separate clay moulds, as could be deduced from the rings found at the site of Amarna. Faience paste was pressed into separate moulds for the bezel and the shank, and the resulting pieces were joined together with a slurry of the core material. Glaze was then applied and the whole ring was fired. The resulting beautiful turquoise colour symbolised the heavens and the cosmic waters (see Friedman (xxxx), p. 222).The wedjat-eye, believed to belong to the falcon-headed god Horus, was one of the most ubiquitous and powerful amuletic symbols in ancient Egypt. It is a combination of the human eye with brow above, and falcon markings below, taking the form of a drop shape at the front and an uncurling spiral at the back, said to imitate the markings on the head of the lanner falcon (but also mentioned as tears connected with the injuring of the eye). The eye was a very popular amulet in ancient Egypt; Andrews (xxxx), p. 10, 43-44) remarks that it is probably found in greater numbers on mummies than any other amulet, and, of course, it could also be worn in life. Most occurrences of the eye are on amulets; on rings they are much more rare.For a very close parallel to the ring on offer see Friedman (xxxx), no. 106 (where it is erroneously called a wadjet-ring instead of a wedjat-ring).Size