Collecting for Eternity:
R.G. Gayer-anderson and the Egyptian Museum in Stockholm
Nicholas Warner
Världskulturmuseerna 2016
© Copyright 2016
National Museums of World Culture
Nicholas Warner
Collecting for Eternity:
R.G. Gayer-Anderson and the Egyptian Museum in
Stockholm
Editing and layout: Carolin Johansson
Cover image : Gayer-Anderson and Lugn at Merimde.
Unknown photographer, 1931.
Figure 1. R.G. ‘John’ Gayer-Anderson in his study in Cairo. Watercolour on paper by his brother, Thomas
Gayer-Anderson, inscribed “To the one and only R.G.G-A from T.G.G-A. Cairo 1926.” Courtesy: Little Hall
Museum, Lavenham. The bust of Nefertiti in the background is one of the earlier casts of this famous piece to
be made, and can still be seen today at the Gayer-Anderson Museum, or Bayt al-Kritliyya, in Cairo.
collecting for eternity:
R.G. Gayer-Anderson and the Egyptian Museum in Stockholm
Världskulturmuseerna 2016 - Nicholas Warner
Figure 2. Gayer-Anderson’s apartments in Gezira House, Zamalek, Cairo. Unknown photographer, circa 1920. Courtesy: T. Gayer­-Anderson.
“Having been in indifferent health for the past 18 months I am trying to lessen my labours and responsibilities. With this in view I am presenting some of my most cherished collections (here in Cairo) to
various museums in England (including the British Museum) and America – I would like to do the same
by Sweden, my wish being to ‘leave something that will live after me’ and with which my name will
always be connected.”1
These words, penned on the 24th of November 1934, heralded the start of a process that would result in
the largest single donation of Ancient Egyptian artefacts to the Egyptian Museum (Egyptiska Museet) in
Stockholm, today part of the collections of the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities
(Medelhavsmuseet). They were composed by Major Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn,
the widow of the first director of the Museum, Dr. Pehr Lugn, and are part of a chain of correspondence
between three cities (Cairo, Stockholm and London) and three individuals (Gayer-Anderson, Pehr Lugn
and his wife), spanning three decades (from 1928 to 1945).2 The dramatic contemporary events that unfolded on the world stage during this period, such as the Great Depression and the Second World War,
appear peripherally in these letters whose main concern was strictly antiquarian. Here we can find the
details of the formation of a collection that continues to educate and inspire us to this day: how museum
pieces were selected, packed, paid for, transported and displayed in an era when steamships were still the
principal method of travel between Egypt and Sweden.
1
Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn [Keeper of the Egyptiska Museet], November 24 1934.
2
Preserved in the archives of the Medelhavsmuset: see Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens Historiska Museer, Egyptiska Museet
och Egyptenkommittén, Korrespondens R.G. Gayer-Anderson. Box EI: 2.
3
The English Pasha
Our story begins in 1907, with the arrival of a
young doctor – recently qualified from Guy’s Hospital in London – in Egypt. He is there as a member of the British Army, enforcers of British rule
in Egypt since 1882. During his subsequent career
in government service, Major Gayer-Anderson
becomes the Chief Recruiting Officer for the army
in 1914, participates in the Gallipoli campaign of
the First World War, serves as the ‘Oriental Secretary’ of Lord Allenby in 1920, and retires in 1924.
This official trajectory, however, is nowhere near
as interesting for us as an alternative trajectory in
which Gayer-Anderson plays the role of antiquarian, collector, conservator, poet, and journalist [fig.
1, title page]. In this narrative, he abandons the
Cairo Turf Club (that bastion of the colonial establishment) in favour of life in the ‘native’ quarter of
the old city.
Gayer-Anderson was, for almost all his life, an indefatigable and omnivorous collector.3 In Egypt, his
appetite was whetted by the ever-present remains
of Ancient, Roman, Coptic, and Islamic Egypt.
He started to amass significant collections in all
of these areas, but the criteria for his collecting
were not strictly conventional. Most of the pieces
he bought were relatively small in scale, and many
reflected values that were not purely ‘artistic’: in
other words they related to themes of daily life and
materiality. To supplement his income, particularly after retirement, Gayer-Anderson wrote articles
for The Sphinx and The Egyptian Gazette detailing how the unwary foreigner should buy craft and
art objects in the teeming souks of Cairo and how
those purchases should be cared for in the long
term. More profitably, he worked occasionally as
a dealer in antiquities, especially Ancient Egyptian, and buyers soon came to trust in his honesty
and ‘good eye’. He lived a life determined by the
seasons, with summers spent in England and the
remainder of the year in Cairo. During, and immediately following, the First World War he loaned
a major part of his collection to the Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford, but there always remained
another ever-expanding collection in Egypt that
was displayed in various apartments in Cairo until
1935 [fig. 2].
3
For the only appraisal of Gayer-Anderson as a
collector, see Salima Ikram, ‘A Pasha’s Pleasures: R.G.
Gayer-Anderson And His Pharaonic Collection In Cairo’
in: Sue D’Auria, ed., Offerings to the Discerning Eye: An
Egyptological Medley in Honor of Jack A. Josephson, Leiden:
2010, pp. 177-186.
4
At this date, Gayer-Anderson moved into a pair of
Ottoman courtyard houses next to the 9th century
Mosque of Ibn Tulun, thereby fulfilling a longstanding dream of his to live ‘à la mode orientale’.
The houses, commonly referred to as the Bayt
al-Kritliyya or the ‘House of the Cretan Woman’,
had just been restored by the Comité de conservation des monuments de l’art Arabe, but it was
Gayer­
-Anderson who embellished them with a
huge variety of objects and furnishings and made
them into a home [fig. 3]. There he lived, with
one major interruption occasioned by the Second
World War, until his death in 1945. By agreement
with the Egyptian Government, the houses with
their contents were established as a public museum
bearing the name of ‘The Gayer-Anderson Pasha
Museum of Oriental Arts and Crafts’: he had been
given the honorary title of Pasha by King Farouk
in 1943. The museum remains open to this day,
though its pharaonic collection forms a relatively
insignificant part of the overall contents.4
The Crown Prince
Back in Sweden, the impetus for the formation of
a separate museum dedicated to the culture of
Ancient Egypt had been growing since the beginning
of the 1920s, with the support of Crown Prince,
Gustaf Adolf (the future King Gustaf VI Adolf). 1928
witnessed the birth of this independent museum,
housed in its own premises in Gamla Stan with an
egyptologist from Uppsala University, Pehr Lugn,
as its first director.5 Objects were moved there from
the National Museum and the State Historical
Museum, some of which derived from the early19th century Royal Palace collection created from
pieces obtained in Egypt by Giovanni Anastasi and
4
For details of the museum and its collections, see
Nicholas Warner, The Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo: a short guide, Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities
Press, 2003; R.G. Gayer-Anderson, Legends of the House
of the Cretan Woman, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2001; Nicholas Warner, ‘Food for the Soul: the
Restoration of the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo’ in:
N. Brehony and A. El-Desouky (eds.), British-Egyptian
Relations from Suez to the Present Day, School of Oriental and African Studies Middle East Issues, Saqi 2007,
pp.274-282; Nicholas Warner, ‘A New Pharaonic Room
at the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo’ in: Bulletin of
the American Research Center in Egypt 191, Spring 2007,
pp.41-43.
5
For biographical details concerning Pehr Lugn, see
W.R. Dawson and E.P. Uphill, Who was Who in Egyptology [3rd edition revised by M. Bierbrier] 1995, p.264; Gunhild Lugn, ‘Det Egyptiska Museet i Stockholm’ in Svenska
Orientsällskapets Årsbok 1937 p. 176-198 and Bengt
Peterson: ‘Pehr J Lugn’ in: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon,
urn:sbl:9730.
Figure 3. The ‘Harem Room’ of the Bayt al-Kritliyya. Unknown photographer, circa 1944. Courtesy: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
Figure 4. Visit by Howard Carter to the Egyptiska Museet. From left to right: Dir. E Wirén; Dr. P. Lugn; Count E. von Rosen; National Antiquarian S. Curman; Brittish diplomat Sir H. Kennard; Dir. A. Gauffin; Crown Price Gustaf Adolf; Dr. H. Carter and Admiral H. Lindberg. Unknown
photographer, May 1930.
5
Figure 5 (left and above). MM 10230: Predynastic pot with pot mark,
Naqada I (c. 4000-3500 BC). Height: 47.0 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
A label with Gayer-Anderson’s characteristic handwriting testifies the
gift.
Figure 6. Customs receipt for four crates of antiquities purchased by Otto Smith from Gayer-Anderson in 1928. Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens
Historiska Museer, Egyptiska Museet och Egyptenkommittén, Korrespondens R.G. Gayer-Anderson. Box EI: 2
6
other collectors in the early 19thcentury.6 No doubt
the worldwide craze for Ancient Egypt, sparked
by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922,
was also a contributing factor in the creation of
the new museum. A year after it opened, Howard
Carter himself visited Stockholm to lecture on his
findings in 1930 [fig. 4].7
The collection of the new museum, however, was
clearly in need of augmentation and a number of
interested parties were on the alert for ways in
which this could be done. The Crown Prince, being
passionately interested in history and archaeology,
expressed a desire that the future collection of the
Egyptian Museum should be focussed on the Predynastic period in order to link it with a more general interest in Scandinavian archaeology of the
equivalent era. He visited Egypt in 1930, and on 9th
of November called on Gayer-Anderson together
with Nils Rettig, then First Secretary of the Swedish Legation in Cairo, to view his collection. The
Prince left with a gift of two Predynastic pots [cf.
fig. 5], a Predynastic stone vessel, and two Graeco­
-Roman faience fragments, “with all of which he
seemed very satisfied”.8
By the time of this encounter, however, Gayer­
Anderson already had an established relationship
with a Swedish businessman and collector, Dr.
Otto Smith, who had met Gayer-Anderson in Cairo
during the 1920s and bought various objects from
him.9 Gayer-Anderson appears to have been under
the misapprehension that Smith was somehow
representing the Swedish Museum authorities, judging by a letter dated June 14 1928 addressed to the
6 For Anastasi, see Dawson and Uphill, Who was Who in
Egyptology, p.15.
7
For Carter’s visit, see Riksantikvarieämbetet och statens
Historiska Museer, Egyptiska Museet och Egyptenkommittén,
Egyptenkommitténs protokoll, 20th February 1930. Anslagsframställningar 1928-1953. Box AI:1. There, it is noted that a
gathering at the museum was planned for 24th May, followed by
a visit to the restaurant “Källaren Freden”, to which Carter was
to be invited.
8
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, November 12 1930, see
also Gustaf Adolf to Pehr Lugn November 10 1930 in Riksantikvarieämbetet och statens Historiska Museer, Egyptiska Museet och Egyptenkommitén, Korrespondens 1927–1954. Box
EI: 1.
9
Some of which are now in the Östergötlands Museum
and some in Medelhavsmuseet. The former collection was
published by Gun Björkman in 1963 as ‘Smithska samlingen
av Egyptiska fornsaker i Östergötlands och Linköpings stads
museum’, Meddelanden från Östergötlands och Linköpings
stads museum 1964-1965. See also ‘A selection of the objects
in the Smith collection of Egyptian antiquities at the Linköping
museum, Sweden’, Bibliotheca Ekmaniana Universitatis regiae
Upsaliensis, 1971.
Figure 7. The architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison (left), Baron
Harald de Bildt (centre) and Gayer-Anderson (right) in Cairo in the
courtyard of the Bayt al-Kritliyya. Unknown photographer, circa 1936.
Courtesy: T. Gayer-Anderson.
Director of the National Museum10. In his letter,
Gayer-Anderson describes how he has packed and
passed through the customary inspection procedure at the Cairo Museum four crates of antiquities
and delivered them to the offices of Thomas Cook
& Sons for onward shipping to Sweden. It should
be noted in this context that the trade in antiquities in Egypt remained legal until 1979, and objects
were inspected by representatives of the Antiquities Department and taxed prior to their leaving
the country [fig. 6]. Antiquities were also available
for purchase directly from the Cairo Museum. The
four crates destined for Stockholm contained not
only objects addressed to the National Museum in
the winter of 1927-1928 but also a number of pieces sent ‘on approval’ by Gayer-Anderson. In his
selection of these pieces, he explained that he was
guided by the opinion of the then Swedish Consul
in Egypt, Baron Harald de Bildt whom he regarded
as a personal friend
[fig. 7].
10 In a letter from Pehr Lugn to Gayer-Andersson dated 18
July, Lugn asks Gayer-Anderson to be discreet about these matters in front of Smith.
7
Figure 8. MM 10232: Archaic bed frame, c. 3000 BC. Length: 169.4 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg. Reputedly used by ‘locals’ when purchased by Gayer­
Anderson in Asiut. A copy of this bed, complete with webbing, can also be seen in the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo.
Figure 9. MM 10233: Detail of Middle kingdom wooden coffin, 12th Dynasty
(c. 1900 BC). Length: 176.5 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Figure 10. MM 10275: Predynastic vase with white
cross-lined decoration, Naqada I (c. 4000-3500 BC).
Height: 30.0 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
8
Figure 11. Pehr Lugn (back left), Hjalmar Larsen (front left) and Gunhild Lugn (right) at work in the Egyptiska museet. Unknown photographer,
1931.
A total of 37 objects constituted the purchase, many
of which subsequently entered the collection of the
Egyptiska Museet. The pieces included an ‘archaic’
wooden bed with bulls’ feet (£100) ­­­[fig. 8], a Twelfth
Dynasty coffin from Asiut in yellow painted wood
inscribed with blue hieroglyphs [fig. 9], and 35
Predynastic pots (£66 and 10 shillings) [cf. fig. 10].
The objects that were sent on approval consisted
almost entirely of early stone pieces: Predynastic
mace and axe heads, flints, vases, and palettes.
The Museum subsequently purchased some, if not
all, of these items with the personal backing of the
Crown Prince and many of them can be seen on
display today at Medelhavsmuseet.
The Swedish Professor
In addition to his teaching responsibilities at
Uppsala, Dr. Pehr Lugn was the curator of that
University’s Egyptian Collection (known as
the Victoria Museum for Egyptian Antiquities)
from 1918 to 1928, housed then as now in the
Gustavianum.11 He was the obvious candidate
11 For a history of the Victoria Museum, see Sylvia
Starck ‘The Victoria Museum - An Introduction’ in From
the Gustavianum collections in Uppsala, Uppsala, 1974,
pp. 11-14. available here: http://www.gustavianum.uu.se/
digitalAssets/240/240408_3starck-victoria-museum.pdf.
to head the newly formed Egyptiska Museet in
Stockholm [fig. 11]. Lugn also excavated in Egypt,
first with Hermann Junker in 1931 at Merimde
Beni Salama and then as director of Swedish
excavations at the nearby site of Merimde Abu
Ghalib, which had several work seasons in the
1930s. Both sites were of major importance. Lugn
and Gayer-Anderson did not meet until 1931, in
fact, but the first preserved letter in their lengthy
correspondence dates to July 11 1928. In this,
Gayer-Anderson responded to Lugn’s description
of a planned ‘re-organisation’ of the museum and
request for objects from the archaic and Predynastic
periods of Egyptian history, in accordance with
the desires of the Crown Prince. He expressed
his willingness to obtain such material and send
it to the Museum, and also offered for sale to the
Museum his own collection of Egyptian material
then in London, either by thematic sections or in its
entirety. He wrote: ‘I would much prefer, however,
to sell the entire collection en masse, since by
doing so the collection (which I have taken nearly
twenty years to amass, and for which I therefore
have a strong regard) would be preserved intact.
Should your Committee consider such a purchase
I would make special terms, and if sufficient funds
were not available at once, I would be willing to
9
Figure 12. The three thematic photographic albums prepared by ­Gayer­
Anderson in 1928 to document the loan collection. Photo: Ove
Kaneberg. The open spread shows objects from Sexction X. Cf. figs. 13
and 32.
accept deferred terms for part of the cost.’12 Lugn
had obviously also asked Gayer-Anderson for a
loan of objects from his collection to the museum:
a request which Gayer-Anderson was happy to
grant.
Gayer-Anderson spent much of the summer of
1928 in London preparing the photographic albums and catalogue lists describing the various
thematic sections of his collection to be placed
on loan [fig. 12]. These are still preserved in the
archives of the Museum.13 The sections, and corresponding albums, were arranged as follows:
Album I
I Scarabs
II Jewellery
III Bronzes
IV Stone and Plaster
Album II
V Vases and Vessels
VI Wood and Ivory
12 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, July 11 1928.
13 Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens Historiska Museer,
Egyptiska Museet och Egyptenkommittén, Handlingar rörande
förvärv av privatsamlingar, Gayer-Andersons Samling, Box FII
ab:1 (for albums) and Box FII ab:2 (for catalogue lists).
10
Figure 13. MM 10245: Predynastic double beaker from section X, Naqada I (ca. 4000-3500 BC). Height: 16.2 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
VII Amulets and Figurines
Album III
VIII Beads and Pendants
IX Miscellania
X Proto and Pre-dynastic
XI Tel el-Amarna
Gayer-Anderson offered the whole collection,
comprising over 1,000 objects, for sale to the
Museum for £16,089.14 Lugn had already expressed
his interest in purchasing the collection in its
entirety even before he saw the documentation
or knew its cost, in July of 1928.15 He stated that
the final decision would be taken by the Egyptian
Museum Committee [Egyptenkommittén], then
composed of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, National
Antiquarian Sigurd Curman and Dr. Axel Lagrelius.
In the interim, he committed to the purchase
of Section X of the collection, and accepted the
offer of a loan of representative pieces from the
collection should an outright purchase not be
possible.16 Finally, he asked that Gayer-Anderson
be as discreet as possible about future negotiations.
In his reply, Gayer-Anderson not only promised
discretion, but also gave the Museum ‘first option
14 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, July 29 1928, noting that
this was a ‘discounted’ price.
15 Pehr Lugn to Gayer-Anderson, July 18 1928.
16 Section X, comprising 194 objects, was actually paid for
by a Dir. Anders Olby through a private donation.
satisfaction that the negotiations have been
carried on with one who perhaps inspires
more confidence than the usual Cairo dealer;
and I would like to say that having had very
considerable experience of both the fake and
the true in Egyptian Antiques, I think I may
assure you that there is no likelihood of anything that is not genuine being found in the
Collection.’23
Figure 14. MM 10355: Early dynastic limestone hippopotamus, from section X, c. 2800 BC. Height: 12 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
without prejudice’ in the matter of purchase.17 On
August 24, the majority of the Proto- and Predynastic Section X of the collection, which contained
mainly pots, schist palettes and a few figurines [e.g.
figs. 13, 14] sailed to Stockholm on the SS Skaraborg
of the British and Northern Shipping Agency.18
Smaller pieces were separately packed and sent by
parcel post. At some point on its journey to Sweden, this shipment must have crossed the path of
the four crates sent from Cairo in June (that had
been unaccountably delayed).19 Both consignments
were successfully unpacked at the Museum on the
14th of September.20 In the meantime, and to apply
some mental pressure, Gayer-Anderson hinted
that other museums and individuals were also
keen on buying the remainder of the collection.21
Despite promising to do so, it seems that Lugn
never made it to London to inspect the collection
for himself or select the objects for the promised
loan to the Museum.22 Instead, Gayer-Anderson
selected the items, representing about a third of
his total holdings in London. He noted that:
‘in making the selections, of which I hope you
[Lugn] will approve, I have not chosen “the
best of everything”, but have endeavoured
to include a really representative series in
each Section, being influenced also to some
degree by bulk, so that most of the larger as
well as the smallest objects I have not despatched….It is very gratifying to me to learn
that H.R.H. the Crown Prince has expressed
17
18
19
20
21
22
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, July 29 1928.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 15 August 1928.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 22 August 1928.
Pehr Lugn to Gayer-Anderson, 15 September 1928.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 30 August 1928.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 21 October 1928.
The remaining pieces were sent to Stockholm on
November 8 1928.24 These arrived safely soon
thereafter, and Lugn was apparently satisfied
with their authenticity and quality.25 The market
in Egyptian antiquities, then as now, abounded
in fakes, which are often difficult to detect being
created by highly skilled craftsmen often using
composites of original fabrics.
At about the same time Lugn also furnished
Gayer-­Anderson with a ‘shopping list’ for a trip
the latter was about to make up the Nile from
Cairo to Aswan, with the provision that expenses
were not to exceed the sum of £500 sterling.26
With reference to this list, Gayer-Anderson noted
that ‘fine reliefs of the Historic Period…are now
very scarce and few on the market because the
Antiquities Department here has prohibited their
purchase and their export from the country.’27
Several letters from Gayer-Anderson indicate that
he went to considerable pains to search for and
buy suitable objects for the Museum from dealers
in Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan and some of these
were sent by registered post directly from Cairo to
Stockholm.28 He also negotiated on behalf of the
Museum the purchase of a collection of Badarian
objects from the archaeologist Guy Brunton for
£100 [figs. 15 and 16].29
In 1929, a reception was held at the Egyptian
Museum, attended by the Crown Prince and Prince
Eugène, the well-known artist and uncle of Gustaf
Adolf. This occasion was the first time Gayer­Anderson’s loan collection went on display.30
23 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 2 November 1928.
24 Evelyn Wynn to Pehr Lugn, 8 November 1928. Evelyn
Wynn, Gayer-Anderson’s common law wife, occasionally acted
for him when he was not in England.
25 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 9 December 1928.
26 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 3 January 1929.
27 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 3 January 1929.
28 See for example Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 15 February 1929 and 25 February 1929.
29 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn 29 May 1929 and 16 September 1929.
30 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 29 March 1929.
11
Figure 15. MM 10639: First Intermediate Period leg amulets in carnelian, c. 2100 BCE. Length: c. 2 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Figure 17. MM 10627: Predynastic double pot from Badari , c. 55004000 BC. Height: 21,6 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Figure 16. MM 10648: Middle Kingdom amethyst scarab, 12th Dynasty
(c. 1900 BC). Length: 1,5 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Lugn’s hopes to have found a donor prepared to
buy Section VI of the collection (‘Wood and Ivory’)
were later dashed, however, and Gayer-Anderson
displayed some signs of annoyance that the
Museum was dragging its heels over the purchase
of other sections of his collection.31 Perhaps this is
not so surprising given that by August 1929, the
Museum owed him £239 in remaining payment
for Section X of the collection and a further £525
for purchases made on their behalf in 1928 and
1929.32 The debt was repaid to the extent of £465
by the end of the year.33
Gayer-Anderson also approached other Swedes
directly with proposals that they should buy pieces
on behalf of the Museum. In early 1930 we learn
that Nils Rettig purchased £100 worth of scarabs
and beads from Gayer-Anderson that Rettig in-
31 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 25 February 1929 and 28
August 1929.
32 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 28 August 1929.
33 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 12 December 1929.
12
tended as a gift to the Museum.34 The selection was
made up of pieces in both the London and Cairo
collections. Rettig’s colleague in the Swedish Consulate in Cairo, the Baron de Bildt, also directly
purchased 75 Badarian pieces for the Museum at
the same time from Gayer-Anderson, who himself
donated further pieces of Badarian and Tassian
origin to ‘top-up’ this group [cf. fig. 17].35 A number
of Predynastic vases, 24 clay vessels and 12 ushabtis were also sent on approval to the Countess von
Hallwyl in April of the same year.36 She evidently
agreed to buy these, as following her death later
that year her executors paid Gayer-Anderson for
them.37 Some of these pieces can today be seen in
the Hallwyl Museum.
Complementing these relatively small individual
purchases and gifts, the Museum decided to pur34 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 30 January 1930 and 2
February 1930.
35 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 20 February 1930 and 13
July 1930.
36 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 18 February 1930 and
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 26 April 1930, with an illustrated list of the objects in question.
37 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 18 October 1930. Gayer­
Anderson had sent four ‘wadjet’ eyes in different materials in
thanks to the Countess in June: see Gayer-Anderson to Pehr
Lugn, 22 June 1930.
Figure 18. Installation of scarabs from Section I on threads in front of a mirror, Egyptiska museet, Gamla Stan. The construction was designed and
built by Gottfrid Mattsson, one of the benefactors of the early museum. Unknown photographer, around 1930.
chase Section I (‘Scarabs and Seals’) and Section V
(‘Vases and Vessels’) from Gayer-Anderson at the
beginning of 1930.38 A box was sent from London
to Stockholm in March containing 139 scarabs
and seals, 12 seal impressions and seven moulds.39
This completed the group of 31 scarabs and seals
already on loan to the Museum from Section I [fig.
18] and the section was further expanded by the
Rettig bequest. Section V followed in July, and
comprised 195 vessels packed in three crates.40 Not
all of these objects can be traced in the collection
today, although others can be clearly identified
[e.g. fig. 19]. Of the remaining sections in his collection Gayer-Anderson later in the year withdrew
Section XI, objects from Amarna, from sale.41
Pehr Lugn finally visited Egypt in the winter of
1930-1931, for the first time, in order to work with
the famous German Egyptologist and archaeologist
Dr. Herman Junker at the site of Merimde Beni
Salama. During this period he also met GayerAnderson. No detailed record of their meeting
survives, but it seems to have been fruitful from the
point of view of acquisitions. By then, the Museum
had already bought antiquities to the value of
£2,900 from Gayer-Anderson.42 That season, Lugn
bought more objects from him as well as directly
from the Cairo Museum including two Predynastic
wine jars now on display [fig. 20] and entrusted
him with the tasks of obtaining export licenses for
the objects, packing, and shipping.43
38
39
40
41
42 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 6 February 1931 (Statement of Accounts).
43 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 18 February 1930 and 4
March 1931.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 18 February 1930.
Evelyn Wynn to Pehr Lugn, 5 March 1930.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 11 July 1930.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 5 December 1930.
13
In March 1931, 14 cases were sent to Sweden on
Lugn’s behalf containing a mixture of objects from
the Merimde excavations, purchased antiquities,
Lugn’s personal effects, and the gifts presented to
H.R.H. the Crown Prince by Gayer-Anderson on
the occasion of their meeting in November 1930.44
Figure 19. MM 10810: Middle Kingdom faience make-up jar in the shape
of an hedgehog, 12th Dynasty (c. 1900 BC). Height: 4,7 cm. Photo: Ove
Kaneberg. from Brunton’s excavations at Mostagedda.
Figure 20. Predynastic wine jars with potmarks on current display, ca
5500-3000 Bc. Photo: Ove Kaneberg. The one to the left (MM 10873)
and the one to the right (MM 10875) were purchased by Lugn from the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo in 1931. The one in the Middle (MM 18604)
was bought by the Crown Prince from the antiquities service four years
later.
14
One episode of particular interest relates to the time
of Lugn’s first season in Egypt. In early 1931, Lugn
visited the storerooms at Saqqara, and selected objects for the Museum from Cecil Firth and James
Quibell’s excavations there. These pieces included
5th-6th Dynasty alabaster and limestone model vases, a 19th Dynasty Royal head in relief [fig. 21], a relief with a procession of five men [MM 11415], Old
Kingdom wooden statuettes, 3rd Dynasty flints, and
stelae dating to the 6th-7th Dynasties, the Middle
Kingdom, and Late Period [fig. 22].45 Gayer-Anderson was a personal friend of Firth (who died later
that year), and was heavily involved in the purchase and its aftermath.46 By the end of March, the
Saqqara objects were awaiting an export approval
from M. Pierre Lacau (the Director of the Antiquities Service) and Rex Engelbach (then curator at
the Egyptian Museum).47 In May, Gayer-Anderson
notified Lugn that there had been ‘great difficulty
over the Saqqara purchases’ but that the majority
were cleared and given to Thomas Cook for shipping to Sweden.48 These pieces eventually arrived
at the Museum in the summer of 1931. The objects
held back by the authorities principally seem to
have been Old Kingdom ceramics, valued at £14
and already paid for by Lugn.49 The matter did not,
however, end there because in May of the following
year we learn that Gayer-Anderson was still trying
‘to get a few things out of Saqqara’ through Firth’s
colleague Quibell to compensate the Museum for
the money they had spent.50 To solve the problem,
Quibell suggested choosing objects of equivalent
value.51 Lugn agreed to this, and asked Gayer-Anderson to make the selection on his behalf, which
44 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 22 March 1931 (with an
illustrated list of objects); Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 25
March 1931.
45 All these items and more are included in a handwritten
list provided by Firth under the heading ‘Objects in Magazines
or Saqqara selected by Dr. Lugn for Stockholm Museum’. The
list is attached to the letter written to Pehr Lugn by Gayer­Anderson on 28 May 1931.
46 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 25 March 1931, 28 May
1931, and 9 August 1931.
47 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 25 March 1931.
48 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 28 May 1931.
49 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 2 May 1932.
50 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 20 May 1932.
51 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 20 May 1932.
Although no further correspondence on the subject survives, it is likely that Gayer-Anderson did
ultimately provide the Museum with substitute
pieces from Saqqara later in the year.
Figure 21. MM 11416: New Kingdom fragment of a painted relief,
probably depicting Seti I or Ramses II, 19th Dynasty (1300-1200 BC).
Height: 33,0 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Figure 22. MM 11422: Late Period limeston stele from Saqqara showing Anubis preparing a mummy accompanied by mourning women, 27th Dynasty (c. 500-400 BC). Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
In the summer of 1931 Lugn must have written
to Gayer-Anderson expressing the Museum’s
intention to purchase two further sections from
his collection, parts of which were still on loan to
Stockholm. These were Sections VIII (‘Beads and
Pendants’) and Section IX (‘Miscellanea’). Gayer­
Anderson duly packed these in order to send
them.53 Two years later, however, these sections,
together with Section II (‘Jewellery’) were still in
their boxes awaiting shipment.54 In the meantime,
business continued as usual, with Gayer-Anderson
looking forward ‘to meeting you [Lugn] again next
season, as you so kindly suggest, both in Cairo and
in your field of work.’ [fig. on front page].55
In 1932, Gayer-Anderson referred to finds from
the Swedish dig being divided between Junker (on
behalf of Lugn) and Lacau (on behalf of the Antiquities Department). In May he ‘handed over to
Messrs Thos Cook and Sons 12 cases of Antiquities
packed and passed through the Museum by Dr.
Junker on your behalf’. As was the case the previous season, Lugn also bought objects himself [eg
MM 11037]: two cases were cleared through the
Cairo Museum and sent on to Sweden in March
1932. Nine further Predynastic pieces were delayed and sent on by post in September.
This pattern of Gayer-Anderson acting as Lugn’s
agent sending both excavated and purchased material back to Sweden repeated itself the following
season. In March 1933 a list of objects for export
included one box of animal bones and another of
pottery sherds, both obviously from excavations,
together with ‘objects selected on approval’ by
Lugn, mostly Badarian and Predynastic pieces.
Lugn also purchased a Middle Kingdom stela from
the Cairo Museum for £E 9. Engelbach gave this
a provenance as coming from Akhmim. This was
probably the last time Gayer-Anderson met Lugn,
for the latter did not make the journey to Egypt
again, dying in March 1934. Until then, however,
they remained in correspondence with Gayer­
Anderson writing to Lugn from the Winter Palace
in Luxor in December 1933:
he proved unable to do before leaving for England
that summer.52
52 Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 21 June 1932 and 27 June
1932.
‘You asked me…to be on the look out for
53
54
55
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 9 August 1931.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 19 July 1933.
Gayer-Anderson to Pehr Lugn, 9 August 1931.
15
Fig. 23. Gunhild Lugn at her desk in the Egyptiska Museet. Reprinted from Svenska Journalen 29, 1953.
various ancient Egyptian materials, seeds,
foodstuffs etc and so as I found a large assortment of these in the shops here I have
made a very interesting collection and cheap
of which I can send you particulars…I have
got a really wonderful assortment of things
this trip, better than ever before, especially
in the way of Pre-Dynastic pots and stone
jars.’
The Dedicated Keeper
With the death of her husband in 1934, Gunhild
Lugn assumed the role of Keeper of the Egyptian
Museum in Stockholm [fig. 23]. This is a role she
pursued with determination and skill until 1954,
despite the fact that she lacked any formal qualifications in the field. She rapidly took up the strands
of communication with Gayer-Anderson:
‘As you may have already heard, Doctor
Lugn, my husband, died last month….No
new Egyptologist being ready to succeed
him, the Egypt-Committee have for the
present entrusted the task of managing the
Museum to me who has already for several
years acted as keeper of the Museum during
Doctor Lugn’s prolonged visits to Egypt.’
She went on to mention the continuing desire of
the Museum to purchase further sections of Gayer­
16
Anderson’s collection, and asked the Major to help
process the finds from the last season’s Swedish
excavations at Abu Ghalib through the Cairo
Museum and send them to Stockholm. Finally,
she alluded to her difficulty in working out how
things stood financially between the Museum and
Gayer-Anderson as ‘many things must have been
settled verbally in Cairo.’
By June, Gunhild Lugn had become aware of
several problems, among them the fact that certain
elements of Gayer-Anderson’s loan collection
did not, as was generally believed, belong to the
Museum, that money was owed to him, and that her
deceased husband had been bankrupt at the time
of his death and had acted without the authority of
the Museum’s supervisory committee. This seems
to be corroborated by the fact that in 1931, Pehr
Lugn apparently donated or sold approximately
70 objects deriving from consignments made by
Gayer-Anderson to the Egyptiska Museet to the
University in Riga56. Gunhild Lugn wrote honestly
and at length to Gayer-Anderson as follows:
‘…I think I have all the missing documents
56 Cf. Carolin Johansson ‘The Gayer-Anderson Collections
and the Egyptian Museum in Stockholm’ in B. Uburge (ed.)
Ancient Egypt: the collection of the Latvian National Museum
of Art, Riga, 2014, pp. 42-55.
at last. And I am beginning to see rays of
light at least. As soon as I have picked out all
the specimens we have not as yet paid for I
will appeal to some friends of the museum to
help me….The fact that my husband seems
to have made no notes about his transactions
makes it rather slow work for me to solve the
puzzle, but now that I can give my undivided
attention to this business I hope soon to succeed. The lists were in a fearful muddle, so it
took me some time to sort them out. Evidently, during his last months in the Museum my
poor husband has been like a man walking in
his sleep. Of course, we can’t afford to send
back such good things as these. When I suggested the alternative I did not yet know how
many good objects that we have long regarded as belonging to the Museum we would
then lose.… Tomorrow I hand the estate of
my husband over to the legal administrator
who will no doubt present a bankruptcy
petition. It is always disagreeable to speak
of personal matters but after all you have a
right to know how you stand. I need not say
that I will do my very best to disentangle this
business without pecuniary loss to you.’
This news proved to be a great shock to Gayer­
Anderson who was quick to respond in detail and
at great length:
‘Ever since the beginnings of my long and
friendly transactions with Stockholm, in
1928, I have been under the impression that
I was dealing with a Government institution
run by a powerful committee whose accredited representative Dr. Lugn was both in
Sweden and Egypt.’
He proceeded to outline the various sales of parts
of his collection to the Museum, the loan of other
sections pending their sale (at a ‘rent’ of 5% per
annum on a suggested value of £450), and his role
as the ‘agent’ of Stockholm Museum in both Cairo
and London. He noted that:
‘Over this, often arduous, work I have neither expected nor received any appreciation
or approval save from your late husband – I
undertook it willingly nonetheless and with
pleasure on account of my friendly connection with and real interest in the Egyptiska
Museet.’
Finally, he mentioned that he had also talked over
the matter with his friend, Baron de Bildt, in Cairo,
which can only be interpreted as an attempt to lever pressure on the Museum. This strategy seems
to have worked, for it provoked a flurry of correspondence between Mrs. Lugn and the members
of the Museum Committee.
By September, she is in a position to write to Gayer-Anderson saying that:
‘I am very glad to tell you that the Museum
now disposes over means that allow us to pay
our outstanding debt to you for the purchases of 1931 and 1932 as well as “rent” for the
year ending April 9th 1934.’
A happy and grateful Gayer-Anderson responded
with confirmation that £489 was the final amount
owing to him from the Museum. From this point
on, business resumed on an even keel. Gayer-Anderson collected the Swedish finds of the previous
season from the German Institute and handed over
five boxes for shipping to Stockholm. Negotiations
were restarted for the piecemeal purchase of additional sections (IV and VIII) of ­Gayer­-Anderson’s
collection. He agreed to the partition of sections
for ease of purchasing through donors but wanted
to send entire sections to Stockholm in one go. He
also offered a 10% discount on the overall price
for any sections purchased ‘in consideration of the
general depression.’ Then, in a rather surprising
development, Gayer-Anderson offered the Museum the major bequest described at the outset of
this article.
‘Flakes of Stone’
The bequest that Gayer-Anderson suggested to the
Museum was not unconditional: he clearly specified the terms as well as the objects he intended to
donate:
‘My only conditions would be:
1 That the series of objects be kept
(a) In a separate case or vitrine
(b) Part or all on permanent exhibition
(c) Not added to or subtracted from
i.e. [kept] as my individual collection
(d) under my name as donor
2 That I receive no reward or decoration for such a gift should it be customary to make such recognition, as I know is sometimes the case.
The collections I have in mind to present
thus are a series of:
17
Figure 24. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Lady Louise Mountbatten visiting the Egyptian Museum in Cairo escorted by Gayer-Anderson. Unknown
photographer, winter of 1934-1935.
1 Artists’ drawings, free hand, on flakes of stone (my most valuable and unique collection) (about 100 pieces)
2 Artists’ model and trial pieces carved in stone and plaster (about 100 pieces)
3 Rare pre-dynastic (including Tassian and Badarian) pots (about 30 pieces)
4 Fine flint knives and implements (about 50 pieces)
5 A fine collection of fragments of every
form of A[ncient] E[gyptian] faience and pottery with a view to displaying glaze colour and design (about 500 pieces)
(NB) The British Museum has accepted Nos.
1 and 2 but owing to old regulations cannot
I fear fit in with my terms (1), (a), and (c)
above.
Will you at your leisure let me know whether
the Museet would consider such a gift and
what your views and choice might be?’
The answer from Gunhild Lugn came by return of
post:
18
‘I am so touched by your wanting to have
your name permanently connected with our
Museum by making us a donation. You have
indeed been a true friend of our institution,
which you have so energetically helped us
to create. If I shall be able to send this letter
by the next air mail I have only just time to
say today that I have no doubt that the Committee [of the Museum] will be found willing
and most grateful to accept your conditions.’
This was followed up a month later with the following missive:
‘You kindly asked me which collection I
should prefer to get for our museum. I have
pondered on this question ever since I got
your letter. I understand of course that you
must consider other institutions as well as
ours and for my part I must consult the Egypt
Committee before coming to a decision. But
if I had a perfectly free choice I should certainly choose your Collection nr.1: “Artists’
drawings” etc. I feel sure it must be very interesting and as you say unique – and at the
same time it would be easy to keep together
and exhibit as an individual collection. We
would expose it in an absolutely first class
way without stint of expense: we have a yearly grant from the Government for that sort of
expense. I am especially interested in Egyptian art and I would certainly do my best to
have the collection published as a separate
section of the Museum collections.’
Mrs. Lugn discussed the advantages and
disadvantages of each of the various groups
of objects proposed by Gayer-Anderson as his
bequest, but was reluctant to trust her own
judgement. She asked that Gayer-Anderson consult
about the matter with H.R.H. the Crown Prince on
his return to Cairo from a visit to Abyssinia, as the
Prince had ‘great experience of museum matters
in general and it would be easier for him to get an
exact idea of the content of the different collections
on the spot.’ It is unclear from the documentary
record whether this dialogue actually took place,
although the Prince did make a visit to Egypt that
season, which included a trip to the Cairo Museum
and shops escorted by Gayer-Anderson [fig. 24],
and did make further purchases directly from the
Museum, which Gayer-Anderson subsequently
sent to Sweden. This illustrates how GayerAnderson did not only sell and donate objects to
the Egyptian Museum, but continued to act as the
museum’s advisor when purchases were made
from third parties.
Mrs. Lugn was soon bolstered in her opinion that
the “Artists’ Drawings” were of most interest by
the Museum Committee, and communicated their
readiness to accept Gayer-Anderson’s gift, merely
asking that a formal bequest be made. Mrs. Lugn
offered their:
‘high appreciation of this new and signal
instance of the unfailing kindness and generosity which you have ever manifested towards our Institution….As regards your wish
to receive no reward or decoration as recognition of your gift we understand and esteem
your point of view and shall naturally respect
your wish though according to Swedish custom you would no doubt be entitled to some
official recognition of gratitude.’
The bequest was now almost a certainty, and
Gayer­­-Anderson soon made it so:
‘I have now decided and herewith formally
offer the collection of A[ncient] Egyptian
pen sketches referred to to the Egyptiska
Museet Stockholm under the terms already
Figure 25. MM 11400: Old Kingdom alabaster vase from the Step Pyramid in Saqqara, 3rd Dynasty (c. 2700 BC). Height: 69 cm. Photo: Ove
Kaneberg.
detailed…This I do with my compliments
and all best wishes to the Museum and yourself. If you will be good enough to let me have
a more or less “official” letter accepting this
offer and reiterating the terms of acceptance
I will duly despatch the major part of the
collection as soon as may be to your convenience. It will be a great pleasure to me to
know that this collection which I have taken most trouble over and like best is to be
in such good and permanent keeping – in
a place and among people for whom I have
such an affection.’
After he had received, in return, a formal letter
from the Egyptian Committee of the Museum
agreeing to his terms in April 1935, he promised to
start packing up the collection for immediate shipment. As far as the presentation of the collection
was concerned, Gayer-Anderson was happy to
‘leave all details of arrangement and display
in your [Mrs. Lugn’s] capable hands and
think it a good suggestion that you should
use old or temporary show-cases to start
with, especially since while I still remain in
19
This second component of the collection was to be
sent from England at a later date, but the two boxes
of Cairo material was added to eleven other cases
of antiques purchased from the Cairo Museum
by H.R.H. Gustaf Adolf on his visit earlier in the
year. These included alabaster jars from the step
pyramid of Djoser [e.g. fig 25] a bronze mongoose
coffin [MM 19464], Old Kingdom funerary
statues [e.g. fig 26] and another Middle Kingdom
wooden coffin [MM 11399]. In this context, GayerAnderson also remarked that ‘there has for some
months past been an active campaign in the native
press against acquisitions of Eg[yptian] Antiques
by foreign nations – but I have seen no special
mention of Sweden in connection with H.R.H.’s
recent purchases.’ As far his own profile was
concerned, he stressed that ‘As regards publicity,
which I suppose is inevitable, I would like as little
notice and as little mention of my name in the gift
as possible.’
By the end of May 1935, the remainder of Gayer­
Anderson’s bequest of sketches [e.g. fig. 27] were
packed and despatched to Stockholm, and he referred to the fact that no more ostraca were available on the market. Mrs. Lugn reacted enthusiastically to their arrival in July:
‘Now your sending has arrived to the Museum quite undamaged. On behalf of our institution I thank you most heartily. Once more
you have surpassed yourself. What charming
things! A hasty comparison with published
specimens of the same order in other Museums suffices to show how choice this new
collection is.’
Figure 26. MM 11410: Old Kingdom funerary statue, c. 2700-2200 BC.
Height: 82 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Egypt I hope to be able to add a few more
specimens each year.’ By the end of the
month, he had packed two cases containing
145 ‘free-hand pen sketches on stone… [representing] about 2/3 of the entire collection
the other 1/3 of which consists of free-hand
chisel sketches (i.e. cut in outline, sometimes
in relief) as distinct from formal artists trial
pieces, usually of a later date.’
20
In the same letter she stressed that her efforts to
raise money for purchasing additional sections of
Gayer-Anderson’s collection were continuing and
also sent him photographs showing the present
arrangement of the museum. Gayer-Anderson
replied by congratulating Mrs. Lugn ‘on the really
admirable lay-out and arrangement of a museum which does you so much credit, pending the
replacement of your present building by a new
and larger premises in the future.’ Later correspondence suggests that there were plans on the
part of the Museum to publish a catalogue of its
collection, in which Gayer-Anderson’s bequest
was to be well-illustrated, but it seems that such
a publication failed to materialise. A number of
Gayer-Anderson’s bequest of limestone ostraca
can be seen today at the Medelhavsmuseet, and a
complete record of them was ultimately published
(‘Amarna’) ostensibly so that he could add pieces
to these sections and increase their value. These
were duly returned to him in England in August
1936, despite the fact that he offered the Museum
an incentive to purchase by including any ‘extra
pieces’ he had bought since the loan commenced
in 1928 at no additional cost. Various letters in the
latter part of 1936 refer to potential donations and
purchases, all of which remained unconfirmed by
the end of the year. Throughout this period, relations between Gayer-Anderson and Gunhild Lugn
remained cordial – that of ‘old friends despite never having met’ – and the Major invited her to stay
at Lavenham.
Figure 27. MM 14051: Ramesside limestone ostracon, c. 1300-1100 Bc.
Height: 12.3 cm. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
in 197357.
Troubled times
At the same time as Gayer-Anderson made his bequest to the Egyptian Museum in Stockholm, he
was preparing to move into his new home in Cairo:
the Bayt al-Kritliyya. The furnishing of this house
was to become the most significant (and costly)
interest of his in the latter part of his life, only
balanced by his 17th century home, ‘Little Hall’, in
the village of Lavenham in Suffolk, England. The
search for money to finance his Cairo operations
became a major concern. He wrote to Gunhild
Lugn:
‘Having spent far more on my new house
than I intended, and since I find it a constant expense I am now very much in need
of money indeed especially as I have done no
business this year at all, and so if the Museet
can see its way to the purchase of a section
[of my collection] it would be a real help and
boon to me’.
A complete list of objects sold to the Museum by
Gayer-Anderson up to mid-1935 survives, with full
descriptions and costs as well as most provenances, and provides a good idea of the scale of their
business to date. In the event, the Museum was
slow to respond to his request, with the result that
in the following year he asked for the return of his
loans from Sections II (‘Jewelry’) and Section XI
57 Bengt J. Peterson ‘Zeichnungen aus einer Totenstadt :
Bildostraka aus Theben-West, ihre Fundplätze, Themata und
Zweckbereiche mitsamt einem Katalog der Gayer­-AndersonSammlung in Stockholm’ Medelhavsmuseet Bulletin no 7/8,
Stockholm, 1974.
In the following year, 1937, Gayer-Anderson asked
for Section VIII of his collection (‘Beads and Pendants’) to be returned so that he could auction it
in England.58 This obviously prompted significant
action, because on the 16th August he accepted the
proposal of the Museum to buy this section for the
sum of £630, partly using a donation from Mr.
Gottfrid Mattsson.59 The Museum must also have
expressed an interest in Section IX (‘Materials’) the
following year.60 In March 1939, ­Gayer­-Anderson
wrote from Cairo to say that Section IX was packed
and ready to be despatched (at an asking price of
£500).61 At the time of Gayer-Anderson’s death in
1945 it remained in the Swedish Consulate in Cairo, though it subsequently appears to have been
shipped to Sweden in 194762 and numerous objects from Section IX are today in the Museum.63
Gayer-Anderson’s executors were still seeking
payment for this consignment in 1946 (see below).64 Another unresolved matter was a collection
58 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 28 May 1937.
59 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 16 August 1937.
60 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 12 September 1938.
61 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 16 March 1939.
62 Communication between the Swedish Consulate in Alexandria and the professor of botany Vivi Täckholm, resident
in Egypt, is preserved in Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens
Historiska Museer, Egyptiska Museet och Egyptenkommittén,
Korrespondens, 1927-1954. Box EI:1. It reveals that Täckholm was influential in the process of clearing the goods for
shipping. According to a letter from the Swedish Consul Mr.
Erik Wilhelm Ekberg to The Scandinavian Near East Shipping
Agency on 31 January 1947, the consignment was expected
to be “about a couple of tons and the volume about 20 cubic
meters”.
63 E.g. MM 13967, MM 19862, MM 19635, MM 19625,
MM 19727, MM 19752, MM 19731, and MM 19225.
64 Gunhild Lugn to Gayer-Anderson, 1 July 1939, noting
that negotiations to obtain money for the Materials collection
has been postponed; letter from Gayer-Anderson’s solicitor,
Ernest Vinter, to the Egyptiska Museet, 3 September 1946.
21
of twenty Coptic textiles that Gayer-Anderson had
sent to Professor Sixten Strömbom of the National
Museum in 1938, and whether these also remained
in Sweden.65
In the winter of 1938-1939, Gayer-Anderson made
his last journey up the Nile to Aswan, noting that
there were ‘very few antiquities because there is
little digging this year and the supply is becoming less and less.’66 This was doubtless due to the
impending war, but he remained on the alert for
possible purchases for the Museum.67 In April
1939 he complained to Gunhild Lugn that letters
are now going astray, and that he was still in desperate need of money.68 It was the war in Europe,
however, that dominated everyone’s thoughts. In
July, Gunhild Lugn wrote thus to Gayer-Anderson:
1944, he wrote from Lavenham: ‘I always hope that
the war may end soon and that sometime I may
get not only to Egypt again but to Sweden when
we shall meet.’70 His mind was much occupied with
posterity and the placement of the remainder of his
collections in various museums. He had obviously
decided that the bulk of the pharaonic material
should go to Egyptiska Museet in Stockholm and the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, with the latter
museum having priority in the choice of objects.
How this was to be best achieved was rendered
more problematic by the war that prevented him
from returning to Cairo. He first notified Gunhild
Lugn of his intentions thus:
‘I enclose the copy of an extract from a
memorandum to my will (clause 5) stating
that I have bequeathed the remainder
of a considerable collection of A[ncient]
Eg[yptian] antiques, now stored in Cairo,
to the Egypt Museet – and giving details as
to how to proceed in the matter in the event
of my death. Should I survive this war (in
Europe) however it is my intention to return
as soon as possible to Cairo, in which case
I would effect the partition between the
Egypt Museet and the Fitzwilliam Museum
myself and lodge all the articles selected for
Sweden in the Swedish Consulate (along
with the boxes of ‘Materials’ already there)
for transmission by the Consulate to you in
Stockholm.’71
‘Though Sweden is certainly going to remain
neutral in case a war breaks out, we must
of course prepare ourselves for all eventualities. I have really wondered if you would
prefer to take care of your Loan Collections
yourself. If they are in the Museum when
the lines of communication are eventually
broken, I will naturally take the care of them
in case of danger. Our cellars are considered
bomb proof, that is to say they will stand the
impact of the building crashing down over
them, but our best Collections and Loans
will be stored far from Stockholm – I don’t
myself know where.’69
No record survives of how Gayer-Anderson responded to the prospect of his bequest to Sweden
being moved or buried by tons of rubble. He was,
of course, no stranger to war, having served in the
Gallipoli campaign during the First World War.
By the time war was eventually declared between
Britain and Germany in September 1939 he was
back in England. There he waited, like millions of
others, for the conclusion of hostilities.
Another outstanding matter was the return of
the pieces from the remaining sections on loan to
Stockholm, which had never been purchased by the
Museum, as these were intended to form part of
his bequest to Cambridge. He obviously felt some
need to balance the relative values of the bequests,
and wrote to Gunhild Lugn that:
‘It is a great pleasure to me to add to my former gift of sketches on stone these further
(mostly proto- and pre-dynastic) objects
which I venture to hope will prove an interesting addition to the Egyptiska Museet’s
already excellent collection….This gift will I
trust help to make up for the eventual return
to Cambridge of those objects, at present on
loan to the Egyptiska Museet, which are to
go to the Fitzwilliam Museum after the war.
I hope to be able to get back to Cairo this
winter when I would select and hand over
The Legacy
Five years were to pass before the thread of the
correspondence between Gunhild Lugn and Gayer­
Anderson was once again picked up. In March of
65 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 12 September 1938.
66 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 16 March 1939.
67 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 8 January 1939 asking
if the Museum was interested in a good fragmented copy of
the Book of the Dead papyrus in the hands of Mahmud Bey
Mohasib, an antiquities dealer in Luxor.
68 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 9 April 1939.
69 Gunhild Lugn to Gayer-Anderson, 1 July 1939.
22
70
71
Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 25 March 1944.
Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 25 February 1944.
to the Swedish Consulate there the articles
concerned, which would be a saving of much
time and trouble to you and to Cambridge.’72
Indeed, in the winter of 1944-1945 Gayer­-Anderson
did finally manage to return to Cairo, taking his
son John to help him. Despite his increasing infirmity he threw himself into the task of sorting out
his affairs there, including the packing of numerous crates and baskets with material destined for
the Stockholm Museum and their transfer to the
Swedish Consul Ekberg.73 A surviving handwritten
and partly-illustrated list, dated 30 March 1945,
shows this last gift to the Museum as including
nearly 400 Predynastic pots of varying sizes, more
than 30 slate palettes, and a large number of assorted small objects of interest.74
Although Gayer-Anderson may personally have
believed that he had sorted out any possible confusion in the ‘partage’ between Stockholm and Cambridge at the end of his life, this seems not to be the
case. Further research is needed to disentangle a
situation that is rendered even more confusing by
the return, or non-return, of various ‘representative’ objects from individual sections of his collection, some of which had been present in Stockholm
since 1928. It is clear from the surviving documentation that Section I (Scarabs), Section V (Vases
and Vessels), Section VIII (Beads and Pendants)
and Section X (Proto and Pre-Dynastic) were directly purchased by the Egyptiska Museet. Section
II (Jewellery) and Section XI (Tel el-Amarna) were
both returned, and form part of the bequest made
to the Fitzwilliam Museum or perhaps to a lesser
degree at other institution(s). Concerning the remaining sections, it seems fairly certain that the
vast majority of objects included within Section III
(Bronzes), Section IV (Stone and Plaster), Section
VI (Wood and Ivory) and Section VII (Amulets
and Figurines) also ended up with the Fitzwilliam
Museum. The distribution of Section IX (‘Miscellania’, also known as ‘Materials’) requires further
analysis, though it seems likely that some pieces
from this consignment eventually found their way
to Sweden.
One last note to Gunhild Lugn, written by Gayer­
Anderson from the Turf Club in Cairo on the 17th
72 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 21 June 1944.
73 Gayer-Anderson to Ekberg, 3 March 1945, 19 March
1945, and 5 April 1945.
74 Filed with letter from Gayer-Anderson to Ekberg, 5 April
1945. A typed transcription also survives, so the objects evidently were transferred to the Museum.
Figure 28. Bronze life mask of R.G. Gayer-Anderson made by his brother Thomas from a plaster original in 1940. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
May 1945, survives. This, characteristically, combines antiquarian and personal concerns:
‘I wrote you a line the other day but forgot
to add a PS suggested to me by Professor
Creswell which is to the effect that in my
museum there is a fine collection of over
2,000 Fustat glass fragments which he (Capt.
Creswell) recommends that Mons. Lamb [sic]
might care to study when and if he comes to
Cairo. I made this collection over a space of
many years and it is now incorporated as
part of the museum’s exhibits. My time here,
which draws to a close, has been almost
entirely devoted to antiques – at first the
Museet’s and Cambridge’s collections and
then organising and putting this place [his
eponymous museum at the Bayt al-Kritliyya]
into perfect arrangement and working order
after these years of great neglect. I do hope
that you keep well – the great relief of having
the war over will make the whole world
lighter of heart. I do hope your boy has got
through all right. My John was with me
here but unfortunately broke his leg rather
badly in a motor car accident and had to be
invalided back to England.
23
Figure 29. S.N. E. 0212: Package containing mortar samples from the
Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, inscribed by Gayer-Anderson. Photo:
Anna Laine.
Well dear Mme. Lugn I must close now with
all kind [wishes] to you and yours and my
respects and well-wishes to HRH the Crown
Prince. Yours very sincerely, RGGA’75
Gayer-Anderson died a month later on 16th June
1945 at Lavenham after an arduous return from
Egypt by sea via Cape Town, owing to the continued conflict in the Mediterranean. More than
a year later the Museum received a demand from
his solicitor for the return of objects from the loan
collection to the Fitzwilliam and an outstanding
amount of £500 in payment for the remainder
of Section IX of the collection, ‘Miscellania’, later
christened ‘Materials and Implements’.76 This debt
seems to have been forgotten, forgiven or paid to
Gayer-Anderson’s surviving twin brother Thomas, however, because the latter sent the Museum
a final memento of their long relationship with
the English Pasha: a life mask made of bronze – a
suitably durable material to last for eternity [fig.
28]. The mask is inscribed on its back: ‘Life-mask
of “John” R.G. Gayer-Anderson Pasha b.1881
d.1945 of the Bayt el-Kredlea Cairo, given the rank
of Lewa (Major-General) and the title of Pasha by
King Farouk of Egypt on the 24th January 1943.
Donor of the “Gayer-Anderson” Ancient Egyptian
Collection in the Fitz-William [sic] Museum Cambridge. T.G.G-A Fecit Cairo 1940.’
75 Gayer-Anderson to Gunhild Lugn, 17 May 1945. Carl Johan Lamm was the greatest expert on Islamic glass at the time,
and he later bequeathed his own collection of glass fragments
from Fustat to the Museum.
76 Edward Vinter to Egyptiska Museet, 3 September 1946.
24
Figure 30. Display of ostraca from the Gayer-Anderson bequest on current display in the Medelhavsmuseet. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Figure 31. The ‘Gayer-Anderson niche’ in the present Egypt exhibition at Medelhavsmuseet. Photo: Ove Kaneberg.
Conclusion
A substantial part of the Egyptian collection held
today by the Medelhavsmuseet is derived from purchases and gifts originating from Gayer­-Anderson
over the period 1928-1945. Some unregistered objects, such as packets containing mortar samples
from the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, have
only recently been ‘re-discovered’ in the museum’s
storerooms [fig. 29]. The prime significance of this
material, however, lies not in its bulk but rather in
its composition, reflecting Gayer-Anderson’s collecting sensibility. Here, we find objects that are at
the same time both representative of ancient Egyptian culture and unique. Especially valuable are the
large number of objects that illustrate “daily life”
such as tools, toys, household utensils, raw materials and food. These make it possible to provide a
more complete picture of ancient Egyptian society
in the Museum’s galleries than would otherwise be
provided by objects chosen solely for their artistic
merit or historical value.
The objects originating from Gayer-Anderson
currently on exhibit are, as a rule, not presented
separately but are, rather, thematically dispersed
in accordance with the layout of the current exhi-
bition. However, a part of the generous donation
of artists’ sketches (ostraca) is displayed as a group
in a separate vitrine [fig. 30], following the conditions set by Gayer-Anderson in conjunction with
his bequest. In addition, there is a niche especially
dedicated to Gayer-Anderson and his connection
with the Egyptiska Museet in which his life mask
and copies of some of the archival documents are
exhibited [fig. 31]. This is intended as a setting for
the story of Gayer-Anderson and his outstanding
contributions to the Egyptiska Museet, both as a
seller, agent and benefactor.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Sofia Häggman for inviting
me to examine the material pertaining to Gayer­
Anderson in the archives of the Medelhavsmuseet
in the summer of 2012. I extend my particular
appreciation to Carolin Johansson for patiently
answering further questions from 2014-15, for
procuring relevant images, and for assisting in the
on-line publication of the results of this research.
25
Figure 32. MM 10306: Predynastic
Anderson’s Section X, cf. fig. 12.
26
pot,
Naqada III (c. 3500-3150 BC). Height: 18.6
cm.
Photo: Ove Kaneberg. Part
of
Gayer­
27