A gold, enamel and gem-set brooch by Robert Phillips,

depicting a winged solar disc, set centrally with a cabochon star sapphire in a gold mount enamelled black and white, flanked either side by two gold cobras and with the stylised wings of a falcon.

The winged solar disc is a combined symbol of
the Egyptian gods Re and Horus. 
Re was the Egyptian sun god and came to be closely
associated with Horus, a falcon-god.  Both were worshipped
as gods of light and were associated with the Pharoah,
hence cobras, symbols of the Pharoah and of the sun, are included
in the iconography alongside the falcon's wings.

Robert Phillips won a gold medal at the 1867 Paris exhibition for
his range of archaeologically inspired jewellery.

Circa 1870

Length 5.4 cm