Funerary jewelry

Found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, Egypt, by Howard Carter (1874-1939), ca. 1922;

His gift to Dr. A. T. (Albert Thomas) Carter, CBE (1861-1946), Oxford, England [1];

His gift to a surgeon, possibly Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan, 1st Baron Moynihan (1865-1936), Leeds, Yorkshire, England, by 1936 [2];

With Spink & Son, London [3];

Purchased from Spink & Son by an unknown private collector [4];

Purchased from the private collector, through Spink & Son, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1967.

NOTES:

[1] Two similar, yet slightly different versions of the provenance are described by Spink & Son in surviving archival correspondence. In a letter to Curator Ross Taggart dated May 26, 1967, David H. Newman of Spink & Son describes that the jewelry pieces “were given by a member of the Carter family to a surgeon who was an amateur Egyptologist, and who attended Mr. Carter. On the surgeon’s death we purchased them and sold them to a private collector who has had them until now.” In an earlier letter dated April 22, 1965, from George Phippen, Spink & Son’s Manager, Department of Antiquities, to American collector Lawrence A. Fleischman, Phippen writes that Howard Carter gave the pieces to “a member of the family, Dr. A. T. Carter, a law tutor at Christ Church, Oxford; who in turn presented it to a surgeon after an operation; the surgeon sold it to a dealer who in turn sold it to this firm.” On May 12, 1965, Phippen wrote to Fleischman again, saying he had neglected to say in his previous letter that the jewelry “was eventually sold to a lady who does not now desire to keep it” and that Spink & Son was acting as agent for this collector. Both narratives mention the pieces having been given by a Carter family member to a surgeon; Phippen identifies the family member as Dr. A. T. Carter but neither narrative names the surgeon. Archival correspondence in the Nelson-Atkins curatorial files and Archives of American Art, Washington, DC, Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman Papers, Series 2, Box 4, Folder 10. With thanks to Judith Barr, J. Paul Getty Museum, for bringing the Fleischman-Spink & Son correspondence to the attention of the Nelson-Atkins.

[2] In Toutankhamon (Paris: Pygmalion, 2015), 497-499, Marc Gabolde considers three medical doctors known to have been associated with Howard Carter, ultimately suggesting that Lord Moynihan was the most likely recipient of the jewelry based primarily on his well-known passion for Egyptology, as described in Newman’s letter.

[3] According to the two provenances provided by Spink & Son, they either purchased the jewelry directly from the surgeon, or from an intermediary, unidentified dealer.

[4] See note 1. George Phippen described this collector as “a lady.”