Lot 164
Egypt, New Kingdom to Romano-Egyptian period, ca. 1550 BCE to 300 CE; Roman, Imperial period, ca. 3rd to 4th century CE. A compelling study group of nineteen objects spanning two ancient manufacturing traditions, comprising five Egyptian pottery amulet molds with five modern impressions and three Roman pottery coin molds with nine modern impressions, the whole assembled as both a document of ancient craft and a cautionary tale about the ingenuity of the ancient forger. The Egyptian molds, dating from the New Kingdom through the Romano-Egyptian period, are small fired clay matrices used in the mass production of faience amulets, objects of protective and religious significance worn by the living and placed with the dead throughout Egyptian history. Their impressed faces preserve the negative forms of figures from the Egyptian devotional repertoire, the impressions taken from them revealing the crisp amulet forms that would have emerged in glazed faience from the original production process. Size of largest: 1.3" L x 1" W (3.3 cm x 2.5 cm)
The Roman coin molds tell a rather different story. Created when forgers pressed authentic coins into soft terracotta clay before firing the resulting matrices, these discs were typically stacked in series so that each carried an obverse impression on one face and a reverse on the other, allowing molten base metal such as lead, tin, or a copper alloy to be poured through a channel and multiple counterfeit coins cast in a single operation. The visible subjects include imperial portrait busts with legible inscriptions naming emperors of the third and fourth centuries, the faces rendered with enough fidelity to the originals that the resulting coins would have passed casual scrutiny, though the softness of cast versus struck detail would have betrayed them to a trained eye. The modern impressions taken from both the Egyptian and Roman molds allow direct comparison of ancient matrix and intended product, making this group an unusually instructive object lesson in ancient manufacturing, whether sacred or illicit.
Provenance: Collection of Y. Kayvan, Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired from a Los Angeles, California, USA gallery acquisition dates range from the late 1990s to 2005
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Item #
201243
- Condition: Chipping and losses to coin molds. All have expected weathering with pitting, nicks, and abrasions. Liberal remaining detail.
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