AN EGYPTIAN FAIENCE STIRRUP RING NEW KINGDOM, 18TH-20TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1390-1069 B.C.

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AN EGYPTIAN FAIENCE STIRRUP RING, NEW KINGDOM, 18TH-20TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1390-1069 B.C. Of stirrup form, moulded in one piece from bright green faience, the hoop broadening at the shoulders to merge seamlessly with an elongated oval bezel set along the axis of the finger. The bezel is framed by a raised border enclosing a sunk field in which hieroglyphic signs are cast in low relief. The surface retains a strong turquoise-green glaze, thinning at the high points to reveal the paler body beneath, with earthen accretions gathered within the recesses of the design. The bezel carries a short hieroglyphic legend, its principal signs discernible within the cartouche-like frame though softened by wear and glaze pooling. Such inscriptions on faience finger rings of this period typically render a royal prenomen, the name of a deity, or a brief apotropaic formula intended to place the wearer under divine protection. The oval field, worn as a signet along the length of the finger, functioned both as an amulet in life and as a token accompanying the owner into the tomb. Faience rings of stirrup form were produced in considerable quantity from the reign of Amenhotep III through the Ramesside period, cast in open moulds that allowed complete rings, hoop and bezel together, to be made in a single operation. The material itself carried meaning beyond its convenience. Egyptian faience, a self-glazing quartz paste known to its makers as tjehnet, "that which shines," was understood as a substance of renewal and solar brilliance, and its characteristic blue-green range evoked the fertile Nile, the vegetation of rebirth, and the turquoise of Hathor. A ring of this colour and substance was therefore not simply an ornament but a portable statement of regeneration, worn against the skin. The New Kingdom saw the widest dissemination of such rings across Egyptian society, from courtiers to modest households, and examples survive in large numbers from settlement sites such as Amarna and Gurob as well as from tombs across Upper and Lower Egypt. Their production was closely linked to the workshops attached to royal and temple estates, where moulds bearing royal names, divine figures, and protective signs were used repeatedly, giving rise to families of near-identical rings. This ring exemplifies the standard type of moulded faience stirrup ring produced in Egyptian workshops during the later New Kingdom, in which the amuletic and the ornamental are inseparable, and in which the very material of manufacture carries the meaning of the object as strongly as its inscribed device. Dimensions: Length of Face: 1.7cm; Internal Diameter: 1.6cm

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