Suitcase Belonging to the Legendary Archaeologist Who Discovered King Tut’s Tomb Surfaces in England
Howard Carter used the luggage while working in Egypt before giving it to a fellow researcher in 1939. Now, it’s heading to the auction block
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A leather suitcase belonging to archaeologist Howard Carter—the man who found the tomb of King Tut—has been rediscovered in England. The luggage, along with a tattered 1890 guidebook found inside, is now heading to the auction block, where it could fetch as much as $1,900.
Carter used the luggage in Egypt during the 1920s and ’30s before giving it to John Healey, a fellow researcher. The suitcase—marked with the initials “HC”—eventually ended up beneath a bed in the home of Healey’s son, Derek, per BBC Radio.
Derek lives in Bishop Auckland, a town in northeast England. Recently, wishing to sell the luggage, he contacted David Harper, an antiques expert who often appears on history TV programs. Harper documented the story on his YouTube channel.
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“The case certainly would not have just carried clothes,” Harper tells the Northern Echo’s Chris Lloyd. “It would have carried important documents, papers and, crucially, artifacts.”
Carter made his career-defining discovery in 1922. He and his team were excavating in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings when they found the four-chamber tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled Egypt from around 1333 to 1324 B.C.E., during the New Kingdom’s 18th Dynasty.
As Carter wrote of his first look into one of the tomb’s chambers, “At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the lights, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold—everywhere the glint of gold.”
Tutankhamun’s tomb was stuffed with precious goods, including chariots, furniture and alabaster vessels. The pharaoh’s mummy had been interred in several layers of nested coffins, including an innermost coffin made of solid gold. Carter quickly became a world-famous archaeologist.
Tutankhamun’s tomb took ten years to clear out. During the 1930s, Carter and Healey became “firm mates” in Egypt, per BBC Radio. Healey was living in Luxor at the time, working as an archaeologist for the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute. When Carter departed from Egypt for the last time in 1939, he gave his monogrammed suitcase to Healey, who used the case for his own trips between Egypt and England, according to the auction house. Carter also left Healey his copy of The Nile, Notes for Travelers in Egypt, a guidebook published in 1890, which is being sold with the suitcase.
“Everything fits together so well, the Howard Carter link to John Healey,” David Elstob, director of Elstob Auctioneers, tells the Northern Echo. “But the most exciting thing is the potential that it was there when they discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb. It is absolutely fabulous.”
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The suitcase was likely ordered in the 1920s, as Harper tells BBC Radio. Its monogram was designed for frequent travel: “Next to the H is a back-to-front C, so no matter what way the case comes off a boat, you can read ‘HC,’” he adds.
“A tatty 1920s suitcase is worth £50 [$63], but it is the initials on the lid that make it extraordinary,” Harper says to the Northern Echo. “If it sells for £5,000 [$6,300], I wouldn’t be surprised. There will be some people who will just have to own it, no matter the price.”
Harper tells BBC Radio that he “drove steadily” while transporting the case to the auction house, slightly worried about the rumored curse of King Tut’s tomb—a superstition that bad luck will befall anyone who disturbs the pharaoh’s final resting place. However, Derek had “been sleeping on top of [the suitcase] for 50 years, and he looks all right,” Harper adds.
