EGYPTOMANIA Art Deco pendant in 18k (750 thousandths) yellow gold featuring a very finely engraved opal scarab with flashes of orange and green with blue undertones. The setting is in calibrated stones: diamonds, emeralds, natural sapphires and a few synthetic sapphires, repeating the delicate papyrus motif. Work from the 1920s-1930s. Pendant height: 4.3 cm. Gross weight: 8 g. In 1799, Napoleon's expedition to Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone, which enabled Champollion to decipher the hieroglyphs in 1822. In 1922, Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered! Although Egyptomania had already been firmly rooted in artistic trends since the return of Napoleon and the burgeoning fervour for Antiquity, it became a major phenomenon in the 1920s and 1930s! The hieroglyphic symbols and the inspiration of the frescoes in the tombs gave rise to a top-of-the-range tourist jewel, the luxurious version of which was adapted by the greatest Parisian and American jewellery houses. Here, the Kheper scarab, which pushes the sun out of darkness, is in keeping with these codes and with the period of the Arts Décoratifs. It alone represents everything that Egyptomania has been able to achieve in terms of beauty.