A light green faience scarab. The base shows a walking sphinx with cartouche and emblematic set of signs reading: 'The Good God [the king], Lord of the Two Lands, giver of life'.
Supplied with a modern hard wax impression of the base.
 
Egyptian 18th Dynasty: Circa 1550 - 1300 BC.
 
Very Fine condition
Length 13.7 mms (0.54 ins)
 
Provenance: D. M. Collection (d. 1993), U.K. A.E Collection, U.K., gifted from the above in 1993. Private Collection, Devon, U.K. gifted from the above in 2018.
 
Compare with Matouk, F.S., Corpus du scarabée égyptien. Vol. 2: Analyse thématique, Beirut, 1976, p.385, no. 632.
 
The base gives rather a shallow impression however rather than acting as a seal, would have been carried as a protective emblem that conferred the king's life-giving blessing on the owner; combining apotropaic power (keep danger away) with beneficent power (to bring good fortune and life). In the ancient Egyptian view, those two functions were inseparable i.e. to ensure life and fortune, you had to drive away chaos and evil.
 
See our blog post on scarabs