THE PROPERTY OF WESTMINSTER COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
The following two lots were bequeathed by Mrs Agnes Smith Lewis (d. 23 March 1926) to Westminster College, Cambridge (the theological college of the United Reformed Church).
Mrs Agnes Lewis (the widow of Samuel Savage Lewis, Fellow and Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) and her twin sister Mrs Margaret Dunlop Gibson (the widow of James Young Gibson, a Minister of the United Presbyterian Church) jointly bought and presented to the Church the site on which the college stands. They laid the Foundation stone on 25 May 1897 and are regarded as the college's main benefactors.
Between 1868 and 1897 the twins made four visits to Egypt and the Sinai peninsula and other parts of the Near East. They are particularly noted for their discovery of, and work on, Syriac manuscripts from the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai and fragments from the Cairo Genizah.
It is understood that the sarcophagi were purchased, both on the same occasion, in Cairo, on either the third trip (1895) or the final one made by the twins. A holograph writing to Mrs Lewis found with her will refers to a "mummy case" from the Seba Banat near Cairo, which almost certainly refers to the sarcophagi following.
A GESSO-PAINTED ANTHROPOID SARCOPHAGUS LID, in the form of the upper part of a female, with blue lappeted wig surmounted by a panelled band of lotus petals, the eyebrows and eyeline in dark blue with black pupils, wearing a broad floral collar comprising lotus petals, green leaves and red bands, two large red bands crossing over the centre, Dynasty XIX-XX, circa 1250-1050 B.C.
Details
A GESSO-PAINTED ANTHROPOID SARCOPHAGUS LID, in the form of the upper part of a female, with blue lappeted wig surmounted by a panelled band of lotus petals, the eyebrows and eyeline in dark blue with black pupils, wearing a broad floral collar comprising lotus petals, green leaves and red bands, two large red bands crossing over the centre, Dynasty XIX-XX, circa 1250-1050 B.C.
26in. (66.3cm.) high
26in. (66.3cm.) high