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2.
Egyptian Ring with Cat and Kittens
Ancient Egypt, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1540-1295 BC
Height 40 mm., exterior width of hoop 24 mm., bezel 13 x 16 mm.
Weight 3.3 gr., US size 9.75, UK size T
The wide hoop of this ring made of green faience is U-shaped; inside it is plain, and on the outside,
fluted to imitate papyrus stalks and the stems of lotus flowers. The flowerheads form the openwork
shoulders. These support the bezel, which follows the curvature of the finger. In the center are
miniature figurines of a seated female cat surrounded by her seven kittens (originally eight).
To transform the simple round hoop of a ring into something with figural content,
craftsmen throughout history essentially had only two solutions. The first was to
decorate the bezel with a scene, either by engraving it or by setting it with a carved
stone. The second (employed here) was to shape the bezel itself, extending its surface
outward or upward. Examples like this one or the Roman key ring (no. 6) attest to this
practice in the ancient world, and we see shaped bezels continuing into the Renaissance,
with repoussé enamel work, and onward in the twentieth century with the charming
sculptural rings by Mosheh Oved (no. 40).
With its raised bezel representing seven kittens and their mother, the present ring
celebrates the cat, domesticated already in ancient Egypt by 2100 BC. Cats were held in
great esteem in Egypt. Identified in the afterlife with the sun god, the cat was thought to
accompany the deceased on their journies to avert dangers in the afterlife.1 In fact, cats
were so highly regarded that, like humans, they were mummified and buried in special
“cat cemeteries.” They even acquired divine status, associated with Bastet, the goddess
of fertility, depicted as a cat or a lioness. Accordingly, they were believed to possess the
power to increase fecundity, an association present in many cultures, which linked the cat
with femininity, lust, and birth.2 Cats also sometimes appear in combination with the
human dwarf god Bes, venerated for protection during childbirth.3 A woman wishing
to have children or hoping for a safe birth while pregnant would have placed her trust
in a ring like this one.
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Other features of this talismanic ring are also symbolic, such as the lotus flower and
papyrus on the hoop, both ubiquitous in the landscape of the Nile. The lotus plant,
living under water at night and rising to the surface only with the appearance of the
sun, was associated with rebirth.4 The papyrus plant, growing in shallow fresh water or
water-saturated earth, assured good health. In combination, the two plants symbolized
the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The green color of the faience – a sandy
core finished with a vitreous alkaline glaze formed in a mold – was believed to transmit
positivity, life, and growth.5
The survival of the present ring in private hands for centuries is remarkable, due to its
fragility. That said, Egyptian cat amulets survive in abundance in a variety of materials in
pendants, as gemstone figurines, and as rings. The major collection of Egyptian amulets
formed by Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), held today in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology, London, includes three pendants of a cat with kittens, all made of greenglazed faience.6 Another pendant showing a female cat surrounded by her eight kittens
can be found in the collection of the British Museum, London.7 Gemstone figurines
depicting reclining cats form the centerpiece of a group of five bracelets which once
belonged to the three wives of Tuthmosis III from Thebes, Eighteenth Dynasty, c. 1465
BC.8 Simpler rings, like one with a cat cut from carnelian and mounted on a gold swivel
ring, would have been worn by non-royals.
Provenance:
Collection of Omar Pasha (1806-1871); Benjamin Zucker family collection until the late 1980s;
Antiquarium, New York; collection of Barbara Mertz (1927-2013).
Literature:
“Treasures and Tombs,” Antiquarium Ltd., 1991; Scarisbrick 2007 [2014], p. 122, fig. 166.
Notes
3
4
5
6
7
8
1
2
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On this ring the cat appears as a symbol of fertility,
while on the underside of the plinth the Eye of Horus is
engraved as a symbol of rebirth, the two images together
assuring the wearer special protection in childbirth.
Amuletic Ring with Cat on a Plinth
Ancient Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, 1069 -702 BC
(London, British Museum, EA64392)
On this pendant, Bastet, the popular Egyptian goddess
of fertility and birth, takes the form of a cat and is
accompanied by ten kittens, symbolic of her fecundity.
Pendant with Bastet and Ten Kittens
Ancient Egypt, 900-700 BC
(London, British Museum, EA26239)
Spencer 2007, pp. 123 ff.
Spencer 2007.
Stevenson 2015, pp. 72-73; Malek 2015, pp. 73 ff.
Wilkinson 1994, p. 20.
Wilkinson 1994, pp. 104-5, on the color green; and Andrews 1990, pp. 57-58, on faience.
Petrie 2011, nos. 227 a-c.
Andrew 1994, pp. 32-34, fig. 29.
Andrews 1990, p. 153, fig. 134.
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In ancient Egypt, cats were mummified for the
afterlife and buried in specially allocated cat
cemeteries; many thousands of cat mummies
survive. Strips of different colored linen were used
to create the geometric patterns of these mummies,
and the carefully modeled faces are drawn in black.
Group of Mummified Cats
Ancient Egypt, c. 30 BC
(London, British Museum, EA6753,
excavated in Thebes, Upper Egypt)
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