An Extremely Rare and Possibly Unique Walnut and Inlaid Egyptian Revival Bench or Window SeatFrench Circa - 1922Of exhibition quality, made from solid walnut and profusely inlaid with geometric tesserae including bone and ivory, along with ebony, purplewood and fruitwood. One end comprising of dual monopodiae supports with carved mythical animal masks and a dividing pierced splat, the rectangular framed woven seat with dual raised tails to the opposing short side that are joined at their ends above the long rear side, the conforming legs with carved human feet.The stylised heads do not seem to resemble any one particular animal or Egyptian god-they have elements that might suggest they are panthers, others that suggest the dog god Anubis, and in all likelihood they were simply meant to have been seen as fantastical representations of mythical beings. The heads are yoked together with something approaching a more conventional chair splat with the heads, rails, tails and splat are all inlaid with a combination of exotic woods including ebony, purpleheart and fruitwoods as well as ivory and bone in the ancient Egyptian taste. This sort of profuse inlay is common on the best Art Deco furniture but, of course, the use of Egyptian motifs is much more unusual. A date of c.1922 is highly likely to be accurate as it was in this year that a craze for Egyptomania seized the world due to the discovery of Tutankhamun''s tomb by Harold Carter and his team in the Valley of the Kings. We have included an image of the antechamber in the tomb showing furniture stacked up in piles and it is possible to see part of two of the benches of related form which must have inspired the present piece. The furniture in the tomb was gilded and/or painted and not inlaid so the maker of our piece clearly decided to take the most time-consuming route possible when producing this bench and no expense was spared. Whereas items such as Egyptian revival jewels by Cartier and the like...