Amenhotep III
Father of Akhenaten, Grandfather of King Tut

393, Lot: 785. Estimate $200. Sold for $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Steatite scarab with partial green glaze. Egypt, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty. Amenhotep III (circa 1386-1353 BC). Face depicts the pharaoh’s name, made up of neb ma’at ra, flanked by a blundered variation of mn mrwt, or “enduring of love” (16x11mm). Pierced. Intact with nice detail.

From the Carl Devries Collection.

Amenhotep, also known as Amenophis III and Nebma’atre, was ninth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. He undertook an extensive building program during his long reign and, consequently, many monuments documenting the affairs of the pharaoh’s rule have survived. Despite this ample body of evidence, Amenhotep has failed to capture the popular imagination nearly as much as his son and successor Akhenaten (popularly imagined as Egypt’s “monotheistic” pharaoh) and his grandson Tutankhamun, a rather minor ruler but well known today as the result of the discovery of his tomb in 1922.