Scarab with Personal Wish Formula

Description This steatite scarab has a flat underside with a vertically arranged bottom inscription with a personal wish formula. The top of the piece has a very detailed, deeply incised design with slightly irregular line flow and almost balanced proportions. The workmanship is good and the piece is simply made. The piece functioned as a provider individualized amulet and should provide its owner with the special support of the goddess Bastet. It originally would have been mounted or threaded.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Translation] May I be a favorite of Bastet.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929