Egyptian mace
Date
1928
Creator
Charles Vernon Boys (1855 - 1944, British) , Physicist
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (paper): 800mm
width (paper): 215mm
width (paper): 215mm
Subject
Description
Two side elevations of a ceremonial mace from ancient Egypt: an original mace head, with a later reproduction shaft. The object was owned by the Royal Society Club, where it was used as a President’s gavel. C V Boys repaired it in 1928, when this drawing was made.
The sketch appears in a rough notebook of Charles Vernon Boys, covering technical subjects, 1916-1943. It has various pencil inscriptions, headed: ‘Egyptian Mace Head from tomb. Royal Society Club. Twice full size’. Associated notes describe his repairs: ‘24th June 1928. Began and finished handle of hard Egyptian acacia. Both pieces accurately fitted & then all glued together C.V.B.’
Colonel Henry George Lyons presented the mace head to the Royal Society Club in 1916. It was described as ‘a pre-Dynastic mace-head…mounted (in modern times) as shown in tomb-pictures’.
A visitor to the R S Club on 9 November 1933, D V Thomson, noted Boys speaking about the repair: ‘Boys described the piercing of the mace-head ground with two conical holes meeting in the middle; with the primitive abrasives available in ancient times the grinding of these can hardly have been effected without years of skill and industry. Boys said the hard acacia wood he had used required steel-working tools for its reduction to size. Accurate measurement of the ancient drilling showed that the conical holes were quite regular…’ [The Royal Society and its dining clubs, by T E Allibone (Oxford, 1976) pp.321-322].
Sir Charles Vernon Boys (1855-1944) British physicist and inventor, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1888.
Sir Henry George Lyons (1864-1944) geologist and museum director, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1906.
The sketch appears in a rough notebook of Charles Vernon Boys, covering technical subjects, 1916-1943. It has various pencil inscriptions, headed: ‘Egyptian Mace Head from tomb. Royal Society Club. Twice full size’. Associated notes describe his repairs: ‘24th June 1928. Began and finished handle of hard Egyptian acacia. Both pieces accurately fitted & then all glued together C.V.B.’
Colonel Henry George Lyons presented the mace head to the Royal Society Club in 1916. It was described as ‘a pre-Dynastic mace-head…mounted (in modern times) as shown in tomb-pictures’.
A visitor to the R S Club on 9 November 1933, D V Thomson, noted Boys speaking about the repair: ‘Boys described the piercing of the mace-head ground with two conical holes meeting in the middle; with the primitive abrasives available in ancient times the grinding of these can hardly have been effected without years of skill and industry. Boys said the hard acacia wood he had used required steel-working tools for its reduction to size. Accurate measurement of the ancient drilling showed that the conical holes were quite regular…’ [The Royal Society and its dining clubs, by T E Allibone (Oxford, 1976) pp.321-322].
Sir Charles Vernon Boys (1855-1944) British physicist and inventor, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1888.
Sir Henry George Lyons (1864-1944) geologist and museum director, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1906.
Object history
From the papers of Charles Vernon Boys, donated by John V Boys, 2018.
Associated place