Akhenaten

This tendency to scale down and colonise ancient Egyptian culture changes with a growing fascination with the cast from the eighteenth century onwards. The undifferentiated 'Orient', including Egypt, became associated with luxury, leisure, and products denoting extravagance or pleasurable physical sensations. Certain types of commodity were particularly identified with ancient Egypt and were put in Egyptian-themed packaging or advertised with Egyptian images. Scents, soap and grooming products generally are one type of commodity; tobacco is another. Numerous tobacco packages and brand titles featured Egyp­tian themes, with the effect of familiarising Egypt and making it recognisable.¹⁹ In north London there was even a cigarette factory built in the form of an Egyptian temple. By the mid-1920s Egypt's association with smoking had become so ingrained that it was almost automatic, even though the 'Egyptian' cigarettes themselves were usually made of tobacco grown in the Balkans. When one of the characters in the imagist poet H.D.'s novella Palimpsest (1926) sees Luxor temple, she remarks that it is 'rather like a magazine ad: or a cigarette box', and that she had seen it before 'on everything, cigarette boxes, posters in the underground, cigarette boxes, magazine ads'.'" This connection made it inevit­able that the Amarna personalities would have a role in cigarette advertising and smoking paraphernalia. Like film stars or sports heroes, they appear on cigarette cards - true confirmation of their status as celebrities. A series of cigarette cards, issued by John Player and Co. in 1912, features Akhenaten and Tiye, Nefertiti still being relatively unknown at this time (see Plate 3.5). The caption identifies Tiye merely as 'Queen Amenophis', like an English wife who takes her husband's name on marriage, although her cartouche is reproduced correctly. The legend on the back picks up on the familiar idea (following Weigall and others) that Tiye was a foreigner, but embellishes it to make her sound even more European - 'she was blue-eyed, and of very fair complexion'. By the 1920s, when Nefertiti's face was well known, she usurped Tiye to appear on cigarette cards herself, as well as to adorn portable enamelled cigarette-cases.

Apart from in 1920s advertising, Akhenaten and Nefertiti also symbolised more generally the wealth, luxury and extravagant lifestyle that is associated with ancient Egyptian royalty. Objects decorated with Amarna motifs have overtones of aspirational lifestyle. The splendid beaded evening bag in Plate 3.6, decorated with the scene of Akhenaten and Nefertiti distributing gold from the tomb of Parennefer at Amarna, is a good example of this. I was unable to find out any­thing about its history, but it has the look of a home-made craftwork. I suspect it is a domestic version of die sumptuous evening bags made by Cartier in the early 1920s, which have gold clasps based on the Egyptian cosmetic spoons with handles shaped like swimming girls, and Egyptian-influenced beading and embroidery.⁰¹ Once again, the image of Akhenaten and Nefertiti works for the consumer by being miniaturised and having its ideological component removed.

Plate 3.5 Cigarette cards of Akhenaten and Tiye issued by John Player & Sons, 1912. The legend on the back of Tiye's is 'Queen Amenophis, wife of King Amenophis III, daughter of Juas and Tuaa, was of Asiatic origin. She was the most beautiful of all the women depicted on the monuments. She is represented more frequently there than is usually the case. She was blue-eyed, and of very fair complexion, and tenderly loved by her husband.' Author's collection.

They embody a rich, beautiful, leisured couplc, not rulers bestowing tokens of their appreciation on dutiful subjects.

QUEEhT AMENOPH IS j

The appearance of Akhenaten and Nefertiti on fashion accessories like even­ing bags and cigarette-cases suggests to me that in the 1920s and 1930s they had again found a perfect cultural moment to be rediscovered, bccause they seemed so up to date. In 1912 when Nefertiti and the Amarna royal women were first discovered, their fashion value would have been negligible: smart women were wearing elaborate corsets and huge cartwheel hats adorned with birds' wings. Ten or fifteen years later, though, the untailored, figure-hugging draperies and skull-sculptured head-dresses of the Amarna royal women perfectly suited the generation which had abandoned the corset and picture hat in favour of clinging garments cut on the bias and neat felt cloches (see Plate 3.7). It also fits

Plate 3.6 1920s beaded evening bag, based on a scene of Akhenaten and Nefertiti distribut­ing gold, from the tomb of Parennefer at Amarna. Height 22 cm, width 12 cm. From the collection of Monique Bell, New York.

into art deco's enthusiastic and promiscuous adoption of Egyptian motifs and images.