The Tutankhamun Replicas at Hull Museums

Howard Carter had never seen the Tutankhamun replicas, and they were far better reproductions than he gave them credit for. It took William Aumonier, advised by Egyptologist Arthur Weigall, eight months to produce the items, using gold leaf at an estimated value of 1000 pounds. His attention to detail was remarkable, and included reproducing the pinholes in the Tailor's mannequin and the broken portions supposedly wrenched off the Royal Throne by thieves.

The Hull Connection

At first glance Hull might seem an unusual place for these replicas to end up, but Aumonier was a local Hull artist, and had recently completed the Stuart Memorial for Holderness Road, Hull, a bust of Thomas R Ferens for the City Art Gallery, and a Great War Memorial Fountain to commemorate the loss of 153 employees of the local Reckitts company. After the exhibition at Wembley had finished the collection was offered for sale, and purchased by Albert Reckitt, and donated to the people of Hull in 1936.

On display

The first exhibition of the Tutankhamun replicas went on display in Hull's Mortimer Museum in 1936. Hull Museums Publications, written by the Museum's director Thomas Sheppard, published an article on the collection, detailing its reproduction materials and notes from the sculptor himself.

The collection was then moved to a special gallery created in one of the warehouses behind Wilberforce House in 1939. These warehouses were destroyed by enemy action in 1941, but thankfully the replicas had already been removed and were not destroyed with them. They were re-displayed in 1972 to coincide with the British Museum's 'Treasures of Tutankhamun' Exhibition, followed by an exhibition in 1993 that featured a mummified Priest on loan from the British Museum. Finally, the collection was put on permanent display in Hands on History museum, where Tutankhamun's replicated funerary treasures still manage to astound visitors today.