Virtual tour
Egypt
Egypt held a particular fascination for artists and designers. The discovery of the tomb of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun, by Howard Carter in November 1922, sparked enormous popular interest in all things Egyptian. The wealth of funerary goods extracted from the tomb included chariots, furniture, mummy cases, spectacular gold jewellery and the extraordinary gold mask of the pharaoh.
Generic Egyptian images and motifs, such as lotus flowers, scarabs, hieroglyphics, pylons and pyramids, rapidly became popular. They covered everything, fine bookbindings to biscuit boxes, variety cases to cinema façades.
In fashion design 'Egyptomania' was ubiquitous and sometimes bizarre. The 'Mummy Wrap', a form of fashionable dress that was all the rage in the 1920s, evoked the layered bindings of ancient mummies.
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