Classic cartouche pendant
Sample listingOn request
The traditional upright oval, one name, worn on a chain.
Price on request
Your name, written the way a pharaoh's was
A cartouche is the oval a royal name was carved inside, so that it could be read for as long as the stone lasted. Yours is made in Cairo and waiting when you land.
What a cartouche actually is
Egyptologists borrowed the word from Napoleon's soldiers, who thought the shape looked like a gun cartridge. The Egyptians called it a shen — a loop of rope with no beginning and no end, drawn around a king's name so that whatever the rope enclosed was protected. It is one of the few pieces of ancient Egyptian design still made for the same reason it was invented: to hold a name.
Why your name can be written at all
Hieroglyphs are not an alphabet in the way English is, but a set of them stand for sounds, and those are the ones used to spell foreign names — which is precisely how Ptolemy and Cleopatra were written, and how their cartouches gave Champollion the key to the whole script. Your name goes into the same signs, by sound rather than by letter. Two people who spell a name differently can end up with the same cartouche, and that is correct rather than a mistake.
The pieces
Choose one to start the conversation, or send your request without picking — we will suggest what fits what you are after.
Request availability
Two-name cartouche
Sample listingOn request
Two names in one oval, or a matching pair — the usual choice for couples.
Price on request
Open-back cartouche
Sample listingOn request
Pierced so the signs read from either side.
Price on request
Before you arrive
How it works
- 1
Choose a design
Pick the piece and the metal.
- 2
Give us the name
The exact spelling you want read aloud, and any second name for a matching piece.
- 3
We confirm before anything is made
You get the specification, the price and the date it will be ready, in writing, before you are asked to commit to anything.
- 4
It is made while you pack
Production runs in Cairo while you are still at home.
- 5
Collect when you arrive
Handed over during your trip, at a point agreed with you.
Start the conversation
Nothing is charged here and nothing is confirmed. You will get a reply with the specification, the price and the date it can be ready.
- You will be sent the metal, weight and dimensions of the exact piece before you are asked to confirm.
- Nothing is made until you have approved how your name will be written.
- The price is agreed in writing first. A commissioned piece is never a surprise at handover.
Questions
By sound. A subset of hieroglyphs work as phonetic signs, and those are the ones used for names that are not Egyptian — the same method that wrote Ptolemy and Cleopatra on real monuments. We send you the proposed spelling to approve before anything is made, so you can see what each sign is doing.
Yes, and it is one of the most common requests — couples, and parents having one made for each child. Give us both names on the form and we will quote them together.
That is what this is designed for. Telling us your arrival date is what lets the piece be made while you are still at home, so it is finished rather than started when you land.
Say so on the form and we will tell you what is possible in the days you have left. A simpler piece is quicker than an elaborate one, and how much time remains changes the honest answer.
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