The Ure Museum has approximately 330 objects from Egypt ranging from pottery dating from the Predynastic Period through to Textiles from the Coptic Period.
The main bulk of the Egyptian collection came from three key acquisitions. The first in 1909 was a gift from Lady Hilda Petrie to the then University College Reading library, this was followed the subsequent year by a purchase (most likely from local subscription) from the British School of Archaeology in Egypt (BSAE). Both of these deposits were made up of objects that had come from excavations directed by William Matthew Flinders Petrie and therefore the provenance of the objects is mostly well recorded.
The third important acquisition of Egyptian antiquities came from the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology in 1923. Percy Ure was made aware that Liverpool were selling off duplicate objects by their secretary Meta Williams, whose brother Robert Stenhouse Williams was a professor of Bacteriology at the University College. Meta later helped write labels for the objects sent to Reading. Many of these objects came from excavations overseen by John Garstang and so like the Petrie acquisitions are well provenanced.
Some of the most notable items in the Egyptian collection include:
- a 12th Dynasty model boat from Beni Hasan (E.23.3) purchased from the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology
- a Middle Kingdom mirror inscribed with a princess’s name and title (E.65.10) from either Liverpool of Petrie acquisitions
- a mummified cats head (59.2.7) donated by Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the Faculty of Science at Reading University, Henry Bassett
- Four New Kingdom faience shabtis from Abydos (E.23.51-55) purchased from the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology
- Fragments of a 21 Dynasty coffin for a Chantress of Amun (E.62.49) from the Petrie purchases
- Third Intermediate Period/Late Period limestone stele from Abydos ( E.23.2) purchased from Liverpool Institute of Archaeology
- 21 fragments of Coptic textiles (2005.7.1-21) from an unknown source