Exactly 100 years ago today, Hussein Hassan Abdel Rassuhl, the water boy and most junior member of Howard Carter’s excavation team, discovered the first of 16 stone steps which, when unearthed, revealed the entrance to the tomb of #Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.
The treasures of the tomb captivated audiences around the world. Carter described the solid-gold funerary mask of #Tutankhamun as ‘a beautiful and unique specimen of ancient portraiture', bearing 'a sad but calm expression suggestive of youth prematurely overtaken by death.'
This was the first intact pharaonic tomb to be discovered in the modern age. Its discovery provoked a craze for all things Egyptian, sometimes known as ‘Tutmania’. Propelled by the new mass media, this had a profound influence on visual and material culture.
The craze often revealed Western designers' ignorance of Ancient Egyptian civilisation. Ramses may not have been the best person to name a brand of condoms after, given that he fathered over 100 children.
Interwar buildings drew inspiration from Ancient Egyptian architecture. The North Eastern Co-operative Store in Newcastle (1929-32) by L.G. Elkins has an epic Egyptian colonnade and towers derived from monumental Egyptian pylons.
The Tyne Bridge (1926-8), the greatest icon of Tyneside, has gigantic granite pylons derived from Ancient Egyptian temple forms.
Tutmania was a major influence on Art Deco design of the 1920s and 30s, as in this scarab brooch by Cartier (1924), made of gold, platinum, quartz, Egyptian faience, diamonds and emerald.
There was a second wave of Tutmania in the 1970s when the treasures of #Tutankhamun's tomb went on international tour. The commercialisation of the 'Tut show' was satirised brilliantly by the great @SteveMartinToGo in 1978. 'He gave his life for tourism.'
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