Editor’s Note
This article highlights a unique auction event where history and high jewelry converged. Sotheby’s New York themed its December 2022 “Magnificent Jewels” sale around key anniversaries in Egyptology, offering a timely showcase of rare Egyptian Revival pieces.
The year 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the 200th anniversary of French archaeologist Jean-François Champollion’s decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. On December 7th, the renowned auction house Sotheby’s New York held its “Magnificent Jewels” sale with this theme, featuring three well-documented and historically significant pieces of Egyptian Revival style jewelry as the highlights of the auction.
The most eye-catching lot in the sale was a set of Egyptian Revival style necklace and brooch created around 1860 by the Castellani family, Italian jewelers central to the 19th-century archaeological revival movement. In this set, the artist combined 16 ancient Egyptian scarabs made of steatite and faience with contemporary European goldsmithing techniques, enhanced by exquisite micromosaic work. This jewelry was created more than half a century before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, drawing inspiration from another major Egyptian archaeological discovery in the mid-19th century.
This Egyptian Revival necklace was born from this context. Its radial design is similar to another Castellani family necklace in the PHOESER collection. Between the two ancient Egyptian scarabs, the combination of circular and teardrop shapes created with micromosaic technique evokes the dung beetle of creation, not only echoing the scarab elements in the necklace but also integrating the worldview of the ancient Egyptians.
The regular flooding of the Nile and the vast desert landscape led the ancient Egyptians to deeply feel the eternity and stability of the natural order of life. In their eyes, time was not a linear flow but something cyclical, symbolized by the ouroboros (the tail-eating serpent). The target-like circular motif on this necklace resembles an ouroboros, with no beginning or end, akin to the mandalas created by contemporary artist Damien Hirst using butterfly wings.
The harmony and mystery of ancient Egyptian creation are embodied within it.
In the teardrops below the circular micromosaic are beetle patterns composed of blue, yellow, and green. Although their shape differs significantly from the plump scarabs, they were familiar to Europeans at the time. In the same year Mariette discovered Queen Ahhotep I’s tomb, *On the Origin of Species* was published. The fervor for natural science research ran parallel to the Egyptian Revival style, and their combination resulted in a set of jewelry in the British Museum’s collection that uses real insect specimens as material. This green insect, known as the “Brazilian beetle,” was set as scarabs in Egyptian Revival style jewelry, interspersed with the iconic ancient Egyptian water lily. The shape of this beetle is remarkably similar to the scarab design in the Castellani necklace.
Another necklace in the sale was the work of renowned American designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, the eldest son of Tiffany & Co. founder Charles Lewis Tiffany and the company’s first official design director.
The secret of this necklace goes further. Upon closer inspection, one can delightfully discover the faint silhouette of Cleopatra within it—the central oval lapis lazuli is her beautiful face, the cobra above is the crown on her head, and the layered decorations below the lapis lazuli are the strands of necklaces on her chest.
He followed in the footsteps of the Egyptians but created jewelry with his own distinct characteristics, perfectly interpreting what innovation is—not a negation of the past, but a new synthesis of old materials.
Although Sotheby’s jewelry feast featured a style more familiar to Europeans, the appreciation for the beauty of these works is similar, regardless of East or West. Beauty is about integration, not division; it is about “appreciating one’s own beauty” while also “appreciating the beauty of others.” A great work of art can help you see yourself more clearly—this is the significance of jewelry.