The Making of Tutankhamun's Throne

The idea to make this throne came to me after I’d finished work and I needed a challenge. I’d read somewhere that chairs are the most difficult things to make. So I purchased a book on chairs and headed down to my workshop. I laid the book on my bench and opened it up. The very first thing I saw was this beautiful throne. I just had to make one.

Now, Egyptologist furniture makers aren’t very thick on the ground where I live so I decided to enlist the help of the experts. I wrote off to the Egyptian department at the British museum explaining what I was trying to do and the problems I was encountering. Dr Robinson from the museum wrote back with answers to all my queries and also provided a list of other addresses for more information should I need it. That guy was brilliant.

The throne itself is basically mortised and tennoned as the original. The curved solid back is made out of strips of angled wood glued together. I had to make a cramp the same curvature of the back otherwise I could not have held it together before the glue went off. In fact I had to make about thirty different tools just to do all the various intricate jobs.

The original throne is covered in 23 crt. sheet gold. The detail on the original throne is incredible. For instance, there are ducks carved on the back approximately one centimeter in length, not just the outline, but on close examination with a magnifying glass you can see the eyes, wings and even the feathers. That's just one of hundreds of items.

To carve the picture on the throne back was the greatest challenge of all. The scene itself depicts a room in a palace with columns both sides and the sun is shining through the roof. Tutankhamun is seated on a throne while his wife Hespertan is applying oils to his arms

The pieced arms have beautiful winged serpents, hieroglyphics and cartouches carved into them. The infinite detail of everything carved onto this throne depicts something historical, sometimes dating back thousands of years before Tutankhamun was born and he lived over three thousand years ago.

As I carved into the throne, I learnt about each item and theme. You get a terrific sense of Egyptian history. It’s amazing how sophisticated their wood working technology must have been.

As for the finish, there are several coats of primer applied. Each layer has been lightly sanded with 400 grit between each coat. To imitate the gold I used Blackfriars gold paint. They now use pictures of the throne to promote their gold paint as it came out so well. To finish off I applied their polyurethane varnish to provide a tough protection.