Identifying Coffin Fragments from the Collection of a Banjo-Playing Barmaid

Several weeks ago, I wrote about identifying a limestone stela in the Egypt Centre as belonging to an official called Dedusobek. This identity was made possible thanks to the unpublished manuscripts cataloguing Sir Henry Wellcome’s Egyptian and Sudanese material between 1907 and 1914. The manuscripts were mainly compiled by William St Chad Boscawen (1854–1913) between 1907–1912 (Horry 2015). Since getting access to these manuscripts, which are housed at the Petrie Museum, in October this year, I have been able to identify many objects in the Egypt Centre collection. The manuscripts often include additional details otherwise unknown, such as previous owners, auction details, and related objects. This weekend, while working through the transcription of volume three, I spotted two entries for objects I’d been hoping to find information on for several years. Both pieces are wooden panels, which likely belong to the same object (W1042 & W1042a).

Fig. 1: W1042

W1042 (fig. 1) is a wooden panel depicting the god Osiris seated on a throne, with a cobra (Wadjet) wearing the Red Crown twisting around a papyrus and lotus plant shown behind. W1042a (fig. 2) is a larger wooden panel consisting of two registers. On the top, the deceased (or priest?) is depicted at either end with his hands raised in adoration before a winged scarab with two cobras (Wadjet and Nekhbet) emerging from it. A large solar disk was once present at the head of the scarab, but this is now missing and is only identifiable from the circular paint mark. Below this register is a scene depicting Isis (right) adoring Osiris, and Nephthys (left) adoring Re(?). At the top of the panel is a horizontal inscription, while the sides depict a frieze of rosettes between rectangular decoration. The colour scheme and decoration of both pieces is identical, which suggests that they belong to the same object. Additionally, both pieces have large numbers (6 & 7) written in square brackets in black ink. These were likely a numbering system used by an early collector, which is identical to two other objects in the Egypt Centre collection. But whose collection do they originate from? The answer to this had eluded me until this past weekend!

Fig. 2: W1042a

Both objects have their Wellcome registration numbers (R6909 & R6865) written on them, which is usually the key to identifying their origins. However, the records list these objects as simply being recorded in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (HMM) in November 1927. It seems that it was at this time that the objects on display in the museum were retrospectively registered. Thus, all that could be determined was that the object was deposited in the museum sometime between 1913 (when it was first opened to the public) and 1927. Given that the formal registration of Wellcome’s objects only started in 1913, it was likely that they were purchased at some point before this date.

When going through the unpublished manuscript on Saturday, I came across the following two entries (fig. 3):

Fig. 3: Boscawen manuscript page 
(Courtesy of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology)

65: “Wooden panel cut out of a large coffin coloured red. Painting represents Osiris seated on his throne holding whip & Ankh. Behind him a large Uraeus serpent issuing from a Lotus plant. The throne of Osiris rests on a bed of water plants.”

66: “Large panel cut out of a coffin in two tiers. Upper tier representation of winged solar disk (disk missing) with two Uraei as supporters to the disk. In middle of the wings the Solar Kheper beetle. Two priests on either side adore the disk. Second Tier, Ra & Horus seated on their thrones being advised by Isis & Nephthys. Line of hieroglyphs on top giving the titles of Horus, Isis, Osiris Seb, & Khnum.”

 

In addition to the descriptions of the pieces, the manuscript states that these objects originate from the Meux collection, which was sold in 1911. While the lot number was not recorded by Boscawen in his manuscript, it was easy to identify it as lot 1504, which is described as follows (fig. 4):

Fig. 4: Auction catalgoue entry

“Inner wooden coffin of a lady who probably lived towards the end of the period of the XXVI dynasty, about B.C. 500. Cover of a coffin of a lady who probably lived during the Ptolemaic period, about B.C. 200. Painted end of a wooden coffin wherein are depicted the deceased adoring a winged disk, and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Panel from the same coffin, whereon is painted Osiris. Wooden face from the inner coffin of a man, about the period of the XXVIth dynasty, about B.C. 550; the face is painted red and the eyebrows blue. Wooden face from the inner coffin of a lady who flourished about B.C. 300.  Unpainted wooden face from the coffin of a man who flourished about B.C. 300. Fragment of wood from the coffin of Sheps-ta-Mat.”

Lady Valerie Susan Meux (1852–1910) was a socialite of the Victorian era. She was the wife of Sir Henry Bruce Meux, 3rd Baronet (1856–1900), who came from one of Britain’s richest brewing dynasties, Meux’s Brewery, founded in 1764, which was a major brewer of porter ale in London in the nineteenth century. Before her marriage, Lady Meux claimed to have been an actress, but was apparently on the stage for only a single season. She is believed to have met Sir Henry Meux at the Casino de Venise in Holborn, where she worked as a banjo-playing barmaid (fig. 5) and had a stage name Val Langdon. Lady Meux was a flamboyant and controversial figure, given to driving herself around London in a high phaeton, drawn by a pair of zebras. Their house at Theobald’s Park in Hertfordshire was lavishly improved and enlarged; additions included a swimming pool and an indoor roller-skating rink. It was at Theobald’s Park where Lady Meux amassed a collection of some 1800 Egyptian artefacts, which were first published by Sir E. A. T. Wallis Budge (1857–1934) in 1893 with a second edition in 1896.

Fig. 5: Lady Meux and her banjo

As mentioned previously, two other objects in the Egypt Centre collection bear the same numbering as found on the fragments discussed here. W352 is a wooden face from a coffin, which is painted red with blue eyebrows. It carries the number 8 in square brackets just below the chin. W1022 is an unpainted (except for the eyes) black wooden coffin face, which has the number 10 written on the forehead. These coffin fragments are described in the aforementioned lot, thus meaning that four of the eight pieces sold together are now housed in the Egypt Centre collection. Looking through Budge’s catalogue, I was delighted to find that the numbers correlated to his cataloguing (fig. 6). Thus, the mystery of the numbering and the identity of the former owner had finally been solved!

Fig. 6: Budge's catalogue entry

As for the two large wooden coffin panels, these have long been displayed in the Egypt Centre galleries. I remember being brought to the Egypt Centre back in 2004 as part of an MA module on museum collecting to be told (by a non-Egyptologist teaching the session) that W1042a was a forgery because the inscription above didn’t make sense. In reality, while the hieroglyphs do look unconventional, the inscription is perfectly readable (fig. 7):

Fig. 7: Inscription of W1042a

ꜥnḫ nṯr nfr ḥr ꜣst wsi͗r ḫnty-i͗mntt nṯr ꜥꜣ nb ꜣbḏw sꜣ n wr tp n gb

“Life to the Good God. Horus, Isis, and Osiris, Foremost of the West, the Great God, Lord of Abydos, the eldest son, the first born of Geb.”

 

This style of coffin is well-known as dating to the Roman Period (second century AD) and coming specifically from the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel. The coffin of Teuris in the Allard Pierson Museum of Antiquities (APM 7069) being the most notable example (Kurth 1990). Unfortunately, with the Swansea fragments, the identity of the coffin owner remains a mystery that is unlikely to be solved any time soon!

 

Bibliography:

Budge, E. A. Wallis 1896. Some account of the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux, of Theobald’s Park, Waltham Cross, 2nd ed. London: Harrison & Sons.

Haarlem, Willem M. van 2010. De sarkofaag van Teuris. APm: Allard Pierson Mededelingen 101–102, 8–11.

Haarlem, Willem M. van 1998. Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, fascicle 4: sarcophagi and related objects. Corpus antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum: Lose-Blatt-Katalog ägyptischer Altertümer. Amsterdam: Allard Pierson Museum.

Horry, Ruth 2015. Assyriology at the margins, the case of William St. Chad Boscawen (1855–1913). Iraq 77/1, 107–128.

Kurth, Dieter 1990. Der Sarg der Teüris: eine Studie zum Totenglauben im römerzeitlichen Ägypten. Aegyptiaca Treverensia: Trierer Studien zum Griechisch-Römischen Ägypten 6. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.