Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)
ANGELA P. THOMAS: The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah
The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah T his wishes many congratulations to Edith Varga on her jubilee birthday and on her long and distinguished career at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, where she will know that unexpected things can come into and be found in museum collections and can lead to a search down various paths in the attempt to identify them. In the late 1980's Tamworth Castle Museum reviewed its collecting policy and came to the decision that it was not entirely appropriate for a medieval castle to retain a small Ancient Egyptian collection and that this might be better deposited somewhere else where it would be of more benefit. Tamworth initially approached Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, who agreed to take about forty percent of the material as it was known that the collection included items from Abydos. It was felt that it would be better for the rest of the material to go to one place so that in the future researchers would be able to trace objects in only two locations and therefore Bolton Museum and Art Gallery arranged to collect the remaining over one hundred and sixty items. These were accessioned in 1992, whilst recognising that further work would be needed to try and identify items more conclusively if and when this was possible. Unfortunately little documentation survived at Tamworth to be transferred with the items, but there were certain clues to pursue. A prolific collector of Egyptian antiquities, Reverend William MacGregor (1848-1937)' had been Vicar of Tamworth from 1878-1887 and kept his large collection at his home at Bolehill Manor, Tamworth. Much of his collection was sold in 1922 at Sotheby's in London in a sale of 1800 lots lasting 9 days, but perhaps he had given some items to the Tamworth Castle Museum before 1922 or before his death. Alternatively perhaps someone had purchased objects at the sale and M. L. Bierbrier, Who was Who in Egyptology, 3rd edition, London 1995, pp. 267-268.
