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Giles Newsletter
One Hundred Stories

Sacred and Profane Treasures of Ancient Egypt from the Myers Collection, Eton College and University of Birmingham

Martin Bommas, Eurydice Georganteli, Maria Michela Luiselli and Michael Sharp

Published by GILES in association with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

Sacred and Profane - Book cover

Sacred and Profane - Double page spread

Sacred and Profane - Double page spread

Release Date — September 2010 (UK and USA)

Dimensions — 128 pages, 270 x 205 mm (8 x 10½ in.), portrait

Illustrations — 125 colour and 8 b & w illustrations

Hardback price — UK£24.95 / US$40.00

ISBN — 1-904832-80-6

ISBN — 978-1-904832-80-5

Trade Orders — Please visit our Trade Orders section

Press Release — Sacred and Profane: dazzling new exhibition at...

Press Release — Treasures of Ancient Egypt

Sales Points

A rare opportunity to see highlights of one of the most impressive private collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world

Will appeal both to academics and art historians, as well as general public

Ties in with a temporary exhibition at the Barber Institute where the Collection will be on loan for 15 years

About the Book

Published on the opening of a dazzling exhibition at the Barber Institute, this volume displays a treasure trove of ancient Egyptian artifacts from the rarely-seen Myers Collection. Sacred and Profane: Treasures of Ancient Egypt from the Myers Collection highlights over 80 objects, tracing two and a half millennia of life and death in ancient Egypt. The Myers Collection of Egyptian Art at Eton College is widely-regarded as one of the most important, yet little-known, collections of small Egyptian artefacts in the world. The cache of about 3,000 statuettes of mortals and gods, mummy masks, jewellery and cosmetics, pottery, papyri and children’s toys has been until now under-researched and unseen. This new volume contributes significantly to the wider scholarship and understanding of this stunning private collection in particular and Egyptian art in general.

The volume features five essays on collecting antiquities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, on personal approaches to the sacred in Egyptian art, on travels to the beyond in ancient Egypt, on writing in ancient Egypt and on art and the economy in Egypt from Alexander to the Arab Conquest.

Presenting over 100 colour plates, 80 from the Myers Collection and over 20 of coins and other comparative material, the volume also contains a bibliography and an index

Sacred and Profane: Treasures of Ancient Egypt is showing at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, 18 June 2010–18 January 2012

About the Author(s)

Eurydice Georganteli is keeper of Coins & lecturer, College of Arts and Law; Martin Bommas is senior lecturer in Egyptology, College of Arts and Law; Maria Michela Luiselli is honorary research fellow in Egyptology, Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham;
Michael Sharp is senior editor in classic and Byzantine Studies, Cambridge University Press