Mould

Limestone figure-mould, square shaped and incised with a representation of a bennu-bird, a sacred bird associated with regeneration and the cults of the sun-gods Atum and Ra. The mould was probably used in the manufacture of Egyptian faience decorative inlays.

Charles Gatty, who curated the collection in the 1870s described the bird as a plover or heron (possibly the young of the Nycticorax Griseus). Also on the record card is a note that it is a bennu bird. Joseph Sams Collection no. 176 "Moulds being the form very deeply carved or sunk in stone, of several of the sacred birds so that the same may be cast when made of bronze etc".