String of Beads

Necklace of twelve shell-shaped beads made from a yellow metal with ceramic (?) inlays. Slight possibility it is modelled on an ancient piece as it would appear to be a girdle reformed into a necklace. It is very similar in style to some other modern pieces Joseph Mayer acquired from Joseph Sams. It is unknown if Sams acquired these pieces in Egypt, UK or Europe. It is not included in Charles T Gatty's catalogue of the Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities (second and revised edition published in 1879). Nor was it recorded by Percy Newberry or Eric Peet, professors of Egyptology who at the University of Liverpool who catalogued the collection in the early 20th century. It possibly belongs to the class of esoteric mock-Egyptian objects without pretence to antiquity, which had a certain vogue in the early part of the nineteenth century. Joseph Mayer’s catalogue for the object reads: “199 Necklace, of gold and coral, in form of the cowrie shell, with pendants of coral between each.” (1852 p. 17).