Vintage huge Egyptian revival winged scarab belt buckle by French artist Piel Freres (1855-1925)

Vintage Egyptian revival belt buckle, circa 1905 by Piel Freres in France, featuring a scarab beetle and stylised wings. The buckle is attached to a black fabric belt with a waist size of 27 inches - this can easily be removed and replaced with another belt of choice. The buckle is signed with a 'PF' stamp on the reverse of the hook.

The gilt and white metal belt buckle is formed of bi-colour gold and silver tone spread wings and features a central blue glass scarab. Freres is an artist much admired for his brilliant belt buckles, and in fact, a similar buckle features in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in the United States. Pieces like this are tributes to ancient Egyptian jewellery found in tombs from the early 20th century onwards. An example of this is the Winged Scarab Pectoral from Tutankhamun's tomb kept in the Egypt museum (https://egypt-museum.com/winged-scarab-pectoral-with-the-throne-name-of-tutankhamun/).

This beautiful winged scarab pectoral illustrates the throne name of King Tutankhamun, “Neb- kheprew-re”. The central element is the scarab “Khepri” made of a fine piece of lapis lazuli, and three strokes of plural “sign in hieroglyphs” below it. I love this website giving information about the origins of this type of jewellery: https://www.langantiques.com/university/egyptian-revival-jewelry/