21st Nov, 2025 13:00
Fine Antiquities & Ancient Art
43
A RARE AMAZONITE AMULET OF A FROG, THIRD INTERMEDIATE TO LATE PERIOD
€500
€1,000
€500 (1bid)
A buyer’s premium of 30.00% (including VAT) applies to the hammer price of this lot if your bid is successful.
Expert’s note: Amazonite, a greenish-blue variety of microcline feldspar, was highly prized in ancient Egypt for its vivid turquoise hue, reminiscent of the life-giving waters of the Nile and the color of rebirth.
Though often mistaken for turquoise or quartz in early records, amazonite was a distinct and locally sourced material, mined from the eastern desert, particularly the Wadi Hammamat and Gebit el-Ahmar regions. Egyptian artisans skillfully fashioned it into amulets, beads, scarabs, and inlays for jewelry and ritual objects. The stone’s luminous surface was associated with Hathor, goddess of joy, fertility, and love, and it was believed to endow the wearer with vitality and protection in both life and death. In funerary contexts, amazonite symbolized renewal and safe passage into the afterlife, embodying the spiritual harmony between earth and sky that defined Egyptian belief.
Egypt, 1069-332 BC. Finely carved, the animal poised to leap, with its hind legs compressed and its stylized head raised anticipating the jump. The body pierced longitudinally for suspension. The stone of a pale turquoise-blue tone with icy-white and light brown inclusions.
Provenance: The Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani Foundation. With an old collector’s label affixed to the base, inscribed ‘1569ES’. Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani (1966-2014) was a Qatari prince who served as minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage. By the turn of the 21st century, Sheikh Saoud had established an international reputation as an avid art collector, both for his own collection as well as those of several state-owned museums he oversaw in Qatar. Sheikh Saoud’s legacy as a collector is remarkable, as he laid the foundations of the major collections of Qatar Museums. In 2021, the Museum of Islamic Art hosted an exhibition in tribute to the legendary collector, titled A Falcon's Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age, with ancient wear and natural imperfections. Few minute nicks and light surface scratches.
Weight: 1.8 g
Dimensions: Length 1.6 cm
Frogs and toads in ancient Egypt were symbolically linked to fertility and prolific breeding. During the first century AD, the Roman author Pliny the Elder transmitted the old Egyptian belief that frogs arose through spontaneous generation, emerging directly from the mud. This conception was no doubt informed by the sudden appearance of innumerable young frogs in the alluvial soil left behind after the annual recession of the Nile floodwaters. Within this context, it is significant that the four male creator deities venerated at Hermopolis were represented with frogs’ heads, while their four female counterparts bore serpents’ heads, both animals functioning as potent symbols of regeneration. During the New Kingdom, the hieroglyph depicting a frog was employed with the meaning ‘to live again’, a formula of well-wishing conventionally appended to the names of the deceased.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related glazed faience amulet in the form of a tree frog, Egypt, Ptolemaic period, dated 330-30 BC, 2.9 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 74.51.4506. For further related Egyptian examples of glazed faience amulets depicting frogs and toads, see William M. Flinders Petrie, Amulets, 1914, p. 12, pl. 2, no. 18 A-H.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 5 December 2012, lot 336
Price: USD 2,750 or approx. EUR 3,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian faience frog amulet, New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, Reign of Thutmose III, 1479-1425 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related subject and manner of modeling. Note the similar size (2.4 cm) and earlier dating.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s London, 29 April 2010, lot 351
Price: GBP 1,375 or approx. EUR 3,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian green glazed composition frog, Third Intermediate period, 1069-664 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related subject and manner of modeling. Note the larger size (4 cm).
Expert’s note: Amazonite, a greenish-blue variety of microcline feldspar, was highly prized in ancient Egypt for its vivid turquoise hue, reminiscent of the life-giving waters of the Nile and the color of rebirth.
Though often mistaken for turquoise or quartz in early records, amazonite was a distinct and locally sourced material, mined from the eastern desert, particularly the Wadi Hammamat and Gebit el-Ahmar regions. Egyptian artisans skillfully fashioned it into amulets, beads, scarabs, and inlays for jewelry and ritual objects. The stone’s luminous surface was associated with Hathor, goddess of joy, fertility, and love, and it was believed to endow the wearer with vitality and protection in both life and death. In funerary contexts, amazonite symbolized renewal and safe passage into the afterlife, embodying the spiritual harmony between earth and sky that defined Egyptian belief.
Egypt, 1069-332 BC. Finely carved, the animal poised to leap, with its hind legs compressed and its stylized head raised anticipating the jump. The body pierced longitudinally for suspension. The stone of a pale turquoise-blue tone with icy-white and light brown inclusions.
Provenance: The Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani Foundation. With an old collector’s label affixed to the base, inscribed ‘1569ES’. Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani (1966-2014) was a Qatari prince who served as minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage. By the turn of the 21st century, Sheikh Saoud had established an international reputation as an avid art collector, both for his own collection as well as those of several state-owned museums he oversaw in Qatar. Sheikh Saoud’s legacy as a collector is remarkable, as he laid the foundations of the major collections of Qatar Museums. In 2021, the Museum of Islamic Art hosted an exhibition in tribute to the legendary collector, titled A Falcon's Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age, with ancient wear and natural imperfections. Few minute nicks and light surface scratches.
Weight: 1.8 g
Dimensions: Length 1.6 cm
Frogs and toads in ancient Egypt were symbolically linked to fertility and prolific breeding. During the first century AD, the Roman author Pliny the Elder transmitted the old Egyptian belief that frogs arose through spontaneous generation, emerging directly from the mud. This conception was no doubt informed by the sudden appearance of innumerable young frogs in the alluvial soil left behind after the annual recession of the Nile floodwaters. Within this context, it is significant that the four male creator deities venerated at Hermopolis were represented with frogs’ heads, while their four female counterparts bore serpents’ heads, both animals functioning as potent symbols of regeneration. During the New Kingdom, the hieroglyph depicting a frog was employed with the meaning ‘to live again’, a formula of well-wishing conventionally appended to the names of the deceased.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related glazed faience amulet in the form of a tree frog, Egypt, Ptolemaic period, dated 330-30 BC, 2.9 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 74.51.4506. For further related Egyptian examples of glazed faience amulets depicting frogs and toads, see William M. Flinders Petrie, Amulets, 1914, p. 12, pl. 2, no. 18 A-H.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 5 December 2012, lot 336
Price: USD 2,750 or approx. EUR 3,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian faience frog amulet, New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, Reign of Thutmose III, 1479-1425 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related subject and manner of modeling. Note the similar size (2.4 cm) and earlier dating.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s London, 29 April 2010, lot 351
Price: GBP 1,375 or approx. EUR 3,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian green glazed composition frog, Third Intermediate period, 1069-664 BC
Expert remark: Compare the related subject and manner of modeling. Note the larger size (4 cm).
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Auction: Fine Antiquities & Ancient Art, 21st Nov, 2025
🎥 NEW: WATCH 13 INSIGHTFUL VIDEOS FROM OUR EXPERT
With our auction Fine Antiquities & Ancient Art on November 21, 2025, Galerie Zacke opens a new chapter.
After decades of specialization in the arts of Asia —from Japan, China, and Southeast Asia through Afghanistan and the Eurasian steppes to the Arabian Peninsula—we now take a step westward. This premiere is dedicated to the great cultures of antiquity: from the Levant and Egypt across the Mediterranean to Italy, the Balkans, and the Maghreb. A circle closes—along the ancient trade routes once traversed by conquerors from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan. Learn more.
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