This scarab necklace once belonged to Lady Valerie Meux (1852–1910), the flamboyant wife of Sir Henry Meux, the 3rd Baronet of Theobald’s Park, Herefordshire, UK. A great collector of antiquities, Lady Meux amassed 1700 artifacts, including 800 scarabs and amulets. Her collection was published by E. A. Wallis Budge when he was the assistant keeper at the British Museum in 1893.1 A great beauty, Lady Meux was painted three times by James Whistler.
The necklace comprises thirty-one incised scarabs, ranging in date from the Second Intermediate to Late Period. Ten scarabs are inscribed for King Thutmose III; two belong to the ruler Menkheper(re) (Ini); one is incised for King Merneptah, one names the “servant of Khonsu,” and others depict divinities or designs. Three scarabs have fake designs.2
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Budge, E.A. Wallis. 1893. Some account of the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux, of Theobald’s Park, Waltham Cross, with contributions by Valerie Suzie Meux. London: Harrison and Sons.; Dawson, Warren R. and Eric P. Uphill. 1995. Who Was Who in Egyptology, 3d ed. London: The Egyptian Exploration Society.. ↩︎
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2018.10.245AA, D, N. For individual scarabs in the necklace, see: Scarab Necklace of Lady Meux ↩︎
Bibliography
- Budge 1893
- Budge, E.A. Wallis. 1893. Some account of the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux, of Theobald’s Park, Waltham Cross, with contributions by Valerie Suzie Meux. London: Harrison and Sons.
- Dawson and Uphill 1995
- Dawson, Warren R. and Eric P. Uphill. 1995. Who Was Who in Egyptology, 3d ed. London: The Egyptian Exploration Society.