1970s Framed Metropolitan Museum of Art King Tut Gold Plaque - 1 Piece

Description

Title: King Tut Gold Plaque.
Maker: Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA).
Place: New York.
Period: 1976.
Material: Copper, 24 karat … more Title: King Tut Gold Plaque.
Maker: Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA).
Place: New York.
Period: 1976.
Material: Copper, 24 karat gold, linen, lucite.
Edition: Unspecified limited edition.

Description: A reproduction copper plaque with 24 carat gold electroplate, features four low-relief scenes, illustrate ceremonial encounters between Pharoah Tutankhamun and Queen Ankhesenamun, at bottom right marked "MMA 1976". The panel is mounted on linen backing, and framed in the original transparent acrylic encasement, Record S&W cat #801 picture hook on verso.

Overall measures: 14.25 x 14.25 x 2D inches. Sight: 10.25W x 11.25H inches.
Approx. weight: 4 pounds, 7 ounces.

About the piece: The plaque is a near exact copy of the right side panel of Tutankhamun's golden shrine. Each of the scenes depict episodes of the pharoah's coronation, ceremonies for which there is some evidence that, in the late 18th Dynasty, were performed by the queen. One of the purposes of the shrine was through the processes of magic to renew Tutankhamun's coronation in life and in the afterlife. Scenes described below (1-4):

1. Upper left, the queen extends toward the king a sistrum and a necklace with an elaborate counterpoise. At the front of the counterpoise are the head and shoulders of the great enchantress (inscribed beneath the necklace), surmounted by cow's horns and the sun's disk, has the uraeus on her brow. Human hands project from beneath her collar, each hand holds an ankh toward the king. The queen says to the pharoah: "Adoration in peace, receive the Great Enchantress, O Ruler, beloved of Amun!"

2. Upper right, the king, seated on a cushioned chair, holds out a vessel containing flowers and the queen pours water into the vessel from a vase in her right hand. In her left hand she holds a lotus flower, bud, and a poppy.

3. Lower left, the king pours water from a vessel into the cupped right hand of the queen. Her left elbow rests on his knee. The king, holds a bouquet of lotus flowers and poppies, sits on an animal skin covered stool with a cushion. What appear to be balls under the claw feet are in reality the ends of rounded crossbars.

4. Lower right, the queen ties the king's floral collar behind his neck while he sits in a chair festooned with flowers. Nekhbet's vulture hovers over his head.

About the exhibit: In 1976, MMA Treasures of Tutankhamun Exhibit was the hottest ticket in town. Before Nixon faced the precipice of his downfall, the watergate scandal, few things match how Kissinger and he shaped US public perceptions about the US' newest ally, Egypt. Nixon wanted the American people to associate Egypt with something more than oil and war. By sending King Tut's treasures on tour, they got a cultural juggernaut that ushered in the era of the blockbuster museum exhibition.
That's entertainment!

The reproduced panels from King Tut's shrine box were esteemed by many as the most extraordinary of all the reproductions produced by the MMA for the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition. Quite stunning and certainly a prize collector's piece then and more so now.

Resource(s): Meredith Hindley (Humanities, Sept/Oct 2015, Vol. 36, No. 5), touregypt. less