Object Notes

In the ancient Egyptian world, amulets for good luck and protection were buried with the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. These funerary amulets represent the four protective sons of Horus (the sun god): Hapy the baboon, the hawk Qebsenuet, the human Emsety, and the jackal Duamutef.

In the ancient Egyptian world, amulets for good luck and protection were buried with the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. These funerary amulets represent the four protective sons of Horus (the sun god): Hapy the baboon, the hawk Qebsenuet, the human Emsety, and the jackal Duamutef.

In the ancient Egyptian world, amulets for good luck and protection were buried with the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. These funerary amulets represent the four protective sons of Horus (the sun god): Hapy the baboon, the hawk Qebsenuet, the human Emsety, and the jackal Duamutef.

In the ancient Egyptian world, amulets for good luck and protection were buried with the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. These funerary amulets represent the four protective sons of Horus (the sun god): Hapy the baboon, the hawk Qebsenuet, the human Emsety, and the jackal Duamutef.

In the ancient Egyptian world, amulets for good luck and protection were buried with the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. These funerary amulets represent the four protective sons of Horus (the sun god): Hapy the baboon, the hawk Qebsenuet, the human Emsety, and the jackal Duamutef.

This dynamic copper and brass work is amongst the largest and most sophisticated examples of émigré metalsmith John Nicholas Otar’s modern boxes. A whirling spiral of stacked and fixed triangular plates — with a brass plate alternating with every six copper ones — the box suggests movement through its wildly undulating profile.