Scarab Style — Egyptian-Revival Beetle Motif in European Jewellery
Scarab Style — Egyptian-Revival Beetle Motif in European Jewellery
Carved hardstone scarab pendants and brooches popularised by nineteenth-century archaeology and revived in Art Deco jewellery
The Scarab Style is a recurring Egyptian-Revival design motif in European and American jewellery, in which the sacred scarab beetle of ancient Egyptian religion is rendered as carved hardstone — typically lapis lazuli, turquoise, carnelian, or faience — set into gold or silver mounts. The motif first emerged as a discrete fashion in the early nineteenth century after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign and the subsequent decoding of the hieroglyphs by Champollion, recurred in the late nineteenth century around the openings of the Suez Canal and the major Egyptological excavations, and reached its modern peak in the 1920s following the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. Cartier, Castellani, Boucheron, and Lalique all produced significant scarab-style work in their respective generations.
Origins of the motif
The scarab beetle, identified by the ancient Egyptians as the species Scarabaeus sacer, was the symbol of the rising sun and the god Khepri, and was the most ubiquitous amulet of dynastic Egypt. Carved scarabs in steatite, lapis lazuli, faience, and other materials were produced in vast numbers from the Middle Kingdom onward, often inscribed on the underside with the name of a pharaoh, a deity, or a protective formula. Genuine ancient scarabs were and are widely available on the antiquities market and were enthusiastically collected by nineteenth-century travellers; many such travellers had their genuine scarabs mounted by jewellers as pendants, brooches, and rings on return to Europe.
The Castellani family and the archaeological mode
The most important nineteenth-century practitioners of the archaeological mode in jewellery were the Castellani family of Rome, who from the 1820s onward produced jewellery directly inspired by ancient Greek, Etruscan, and Egyptian models. Augusto Castellani's friendships with Roman archaeologists, his access to genuine ancient material, and his commitment to revived techniques (notably granulation) produced a body of work that included scarab-mounted pieces. Carlo Giuliano in London worked in a related mode. The Castellani-era scarab pieces typically combine genuine ancient scarabs with goldwork in the archaeological-revival style, sometimes with hieroglyphic engraving on the reverse.
The Art Deco peak
The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter in November 1922 produced a global wave of Egyptomania that swept European and American decorative arts. Cartier responded particularly strongly, producing a body of Egyptian-Revival jewellery in the 1920s that drew on scarab motifs alongside lotus, papyrus, and falcon imagery. Cartier's signature pieces from the period typically combine genuine ancient faience scarabs with platinum and diamond mounts, occasionally with the addition of carved emerald, sapphire, or onyx. Other houses — Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Lacloche, Black, Starr & Frost — produced scarab-style pieces in parallel.
Construction and materials
Scarab-style pieces typically combine a carved scarab in lapis lazuli, turquoise, carnelian, or genuine ancient Egyptian faience, with a gold mount in the case of nineteenth-century pieces or a platinum-and-diamond mount in the case of Art Deco work. The reverse of the scarab is often visible through an open-back setting, allowing the hieroglyphic inscription on genuine ancient scarabs to be read. Wings — typically diamond-pavé in Art Deco pieces, gold filigree in nineteenth-century work — sometimes flank the scarab body, drawing on the winged-scarab imagery of Egyptian funerary art. The motif scales from small lapel pins to large pendants and brooches, and adapts well to bracelet links and ring settings.
Authentication of mounted ancient scarabs
For pieces that incorporate purportedly ancient scarabs, the question of the scarab's age is separable from the question of the mount's age. Many Art Deco pieces incorporate genuine ancient scarabs purchased on the Egyptian antiquities market in the 1920s; some incorporate later or modern carvings produced for the European market. Authentication of the scarab itself requires consultation with an Egyptologist or specialist auction-house expert; provenance documentation from period dealers significantly raises confidence.
Position in the market
Scarab-style pieces are well-represented in major museum collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and the Petrie Museum at University College London. Period auction interest is strong, particularly for signed Cartier and Castellani pieces. Buyers should distinguish carefully between pieces that incorporate genuine ancient scarabs and pieces that use modern carvings in the scarab format; the two categories trade at materially different prices.
In the trade
The Scarab Style continues to inform contemporary jewellery, with houses including Cartier issuing modern Egyptian-Revival pieces that draw on the firm's archive. Buyers in the contemporary market should not expect new pieces to incorporate genuine ancient scarabs — the international antiquities trade is now heavily restricted by national patrimony laws — and should treat any modern claim of ancient inclusion with appropriate scepticism.