The Edwards Museum?
Amelia Edwards and her collection
By Debbie Challis for International Women’s Day 2011
1 Painted Wooden
Stela (UC14226)
2 Head of Amenemhat
III (UC14363)
3 Statue of an official of
Amenhotep III
(UC14632)
4 Hairpins from Lahun
(UC6901 & 6902).
5
4
5 Jug possibly from Tell
el Yahudiya (UC13456)
6 Jug from Sedment
(UC13427 & 13431)
9
6
3
2
7 Canopic vase
(UC16052).
8 Bronze figurines (e.g.
UC8130, 8113 & 8035).
7
1
9 Copy of a bust of
Amelia Edwards
9
8
Introduction
This is a short trail to objects that we think were in the
collection of Amelia Edwards. There is some ambiguity
as the museum’s collection was known as the ‘Edwards
collection’ until about 1913, which referred to the
departmental collection in the UCL department of
Egyptian Archaeology and Philology named after Amelia
Edwards from her 1892 bequest.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology would not
exist without Amelia Edwards (1831-92). Edwards left all
her Egyptian antiquities, books and a large sum of money
to University College London (UCL) in 1892 to fund the first
Chair in Britain for Egyptian Archaeology and Philology. By
Edwards' wish William Matthew Flinders Petrie was
appointed as Professor. She left her money to UCL as it
was the only English university at that time which awarded
degrees to women.
Amelia Edwards was a best-selling novelist, musician,
traveller and campaigner. She produced an astonishing
output of writing, both fiction and non-fiction, but her
journey up the Nile in 1873 changed her life for ever.
Edwards drew attention to the perilous state of Ancient
Egyptian monuments at that time in Egypt and published A
Thousand Miles Up the Nile in 1876. The book was
critically acclaimed. On the strength of this, and her further
work in Egyptology, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration
Fund (later Society) with R. S. Poole in 1882. Petrie first
worked for the Fund in 1884.
Objects
1 Painted wooden stela of Nesikhons, wife of the
High Priest of Amun Pinedjem (II). Thebes, 1069 –945 BC.
Stone work: Inscriptions. IC8 2nd shelf from top on the left side.
The owner of the stela, Nesikhons, wife of Pinedjem II, is
shown offering an incense bowl to Osiris. The captions
above read:
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Words spoken by Osiris, foremost of the Westerners, who dwells in
Abydos, ruler of eternity’ and ‘the Osiris, first great chief of the
musician women of Amen-Re, king of the gods, priestess of Khnum,
lord of the first cataract region, king’s son of Kush, overseer of the
southern lands, priestess of Nebethetepet of Serud, chief tỉt-šps,
Neskhons, justified.
This is an unusual stela as it records a woman holding
the title ‘King’s son (Viceroy) of Kush’, a title usually
reserved for men. It was also owned by Amelia Edwards
and was therefore part of the founding collection of this
museum. It is particularly appropriate to begin this trail
with a reference to an unusually powerful woman from
the ancient world, as Amelia Edwards was a passionate
advocate of women’s right to learning and freedom in her
non-fictional work and in her novels.
Painted wooden
stele of
Nesikhons
(UC14226).
2 Head with features of King Amenemhat III
(UC14363). 1807/06-1798/97 BC
Stonework: Statuary. IC17 2nd shelf from top on the left hand side
Head of mottled diorite about half life-size, with features
of king Amenemhat III, wearing nemes head-dress and
uraeus.
Purchased in Egypt by Amelia Edwards
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3 Statue of an official of Amenhotep III (UC14632).
1388-1351/50 BC
Stonework: Statuary. IC17 4th shelf from top on the right hand side
Head to waist of left-hand male figure from a granodiorite
double statue of an official of Amenhotep III and wife.
Cartouches on right chest and shoulder, four-and-half
columns hieroglyphs & one column on back pillar.
From the Egypt Exploration Fund excavations at Zagazig
(Bubastis) under Eduard Naville, in the Amelia Edwards
collection. This outstanding sculpture is a good example
of an object from a non Petrie excavation that Amelia
Edwards acquired through her role in the Egypt
Exploration Fund. Naville and Petrie had very different
styles of excavating and Petrie did not approve of
Naville’s ‘non-scientific’ approach.
4 Hairpins (UC6901 &6902). Lahun, 1570-1293 BC.
Objects by Site: Lahun
Hairpins, wooden, incised rings and diagonals. Marked
1889 EDW so possibly from the Lahun 1889 excavation
finds allotted to Amelia Edwards.
This is an example of how finds were distributed in the
late 19thC after excavations. Amelia Edwards had
evidently supported Petrie’s excavations in Lahun and so
got a ‘share’ of the finds that the Egyptian Antiquities
Service in Cairo allowed out of Egypt (NB. the Egyptian
Antiquities Service was mainly controlled by the French
at this point).
5 Jug of Tell el Yahudiya ware (UC13456), 1663 1555 BC.
In Pottery Room, Pottery Case27 on the left hand side.
It is marked as acquired in 1892, so so may be one of
the last items to arrive in the Amelia Edwards Collection.
It is possibly from the Tell el Yahudiya excavations by
Francis L. Griffith, a colleague of Petrie’s who later
married Amelia Edwards’ close friend Kate Bradbury in
1896.
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6 Cypriot Jugs (UC13427 & 13431). Sedment, 15701293 BC.
Pottery Case 30 on shelf 3 on the left side.
Juglet, Cypriot base ring I ware, moulded decoration of
double vertical rib on front of body on UC13427 and cut
away sput on UC13431.
Both marked Sedment 1891 and on the label
Heracleopolis Magna-the Necropolis EEF, 1891. From
the Edwards Collection.
7 Canopic Vase (UC16052).1570-1293 BC.
Case L (Shabti).
An alabaster canopic vase with three column
hieroglyphic inscription:
Says Isis, I clasp with my hands that which is from me. I watch over
Amset who is from me. The High Steward of the Great House Kanani.
Recorded as being bought by Amelia Edwards.
8 .Bronze Figurines (UC8130, 8119, and 8035) Late
Period.
Some of these are in the drawers of Case I in the Entrance (please
be very careful if you pull out these drawers) or go to Case R at the
top of the backstairs for an idea of the type of bronzes that Amelia
Edwards’ collected.
Bronze figurines of gods and goddesses that have marks
indicating that they were in Amelia Edwards’ collection.
These bronze figurines were typical of traditional
antiquarian collecting in coins and sculpture from the
18thC to the late 19thC and also reflect an interest in the
religious pantheon of Ancient Egypt.
9 Cast of a Bust of Amelia Edwards
Entrance
This bust of Amelia Edwards is a cast of an original by
Percival Ball that was made in Rome in 1873. The
original is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery
(NPG) and on display in Bodelwyddan Castle.
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This cast of the work was made by the British Museum in
1961 for the Department of Egyptology, University
College London, now the Petrie Museum.
Dr Jan Marsh, from the National Portrait Gallery, supplied
us with the following information about the original bust:
From 1864 Edwards' home was at Westbury-on-Trym near Bristol,
where the bust remained until her death in April 1892. According to
Edwards' executors, it dated from 1873. It was delivered to the NPG
on 5 November 1892. Her close friend and literary executor Kate
Bradbury (later Griffith) requested permission to arrange for two
casts of the bust to be made; permission was granted for a mould to
be taken but it is not known if casts were then produced.
Amelia Edwards visited Italy several times and this bust by Percival
Ball (1845-1900) was sculpted in Rome during the winter of 1871-2.
In 1871 she embarked on a European tour in September, visiting
Munich and the Passion Play at Oberammergau before arriving in
northern Italy and reaching Rome in mid-October. She lodged near
the piazza di Spagna and according to her cousin, writer Matilda
Betham-Edwards, she 'attended the classes of an Italian artist'.
Sculptor Percival Ball's exhibition debut took place at the RA in 1865.
Around 1870 he travelled to Paris, Munich and Rome. In November
1871 he ran art classes in the via degli Avignonesi in Rome.
Edwards’ signature and home address are in Ball's visitors' book
beneath those of marine artist Edwin Ellis, poet Mary Howitt and the
unidentified Annie Todhunter
Bust of Amelia
Edwards in the
Petrie Museum
Entrance, 2011.
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Some Further Reading
Digital Egypt Website – Entry on Amelia Edwards and the Pre-History
of the Petrie Museum:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/edwards.html
A. Edwards (1876), A Thousand Miles up the Nile
A. Edwards (1864), Barbara’s History – her only novel in print but it
gives a vivid glimpse of the artistic community in Rome in the 1850s.
B. E. Moon (2006), More usefully employed: Amelia B. Edwards,
writer, traveller and campaigner for Ancient Egypt.
J. Rees (1998), Amelia Edwards: traveller, novelist and Egyptologist.
U3A / Petrie Museum Shared Learning Project (2009), Pioneering
Women in Archaeology: Amelia Edwards and Margaret Murray
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Dr Jan Marsh and Elizabeth Heath, Later Victorian
Catalogue Project at the National Portrait Gallery, for all their help
and expertise.
Thanks to the U3A Shared Learning Group who highlighted the
importance of Amelia Edwards in 2009: Pauline Brown, Clive
Banham Carter, Barbara Pollitt, Gwen Wright, Joy Lowe, Brenda
Frith and Lillias Gillies.
Special thanks to the generous and anonymous donor from the
Friends of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, who has
made this re-display and celebration of Amelia Edwards’ possible.
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