The extraordinary artifacts found in the tomb of King Tut have drawn millions of Americans to the museum exhibit that has been touring the United States, breaking attendance records everywhere it has gone.

Many of the vivid designs that decorate these ancient works of Egyptian art were executed in a dazzling geometric style which the designer/author of this book saw could be adapted logically to needlepoint canvas. With the exception of the extraordinary golden funerary mask, he chose not to stitch facsimiles of the objects found in the tomb. Rather, he combined border designs, hieroglyphs, jewelry motifs, inlay patterns, the forms of certain key objects, and created stunning compositions of his own. He rendered them with a brilliance of color that is rarely achieved in wool stitchery.

The color plates and detailed graphs show each composition in its entirety. The graphs are then shown in enlarged sections--halves or quadrants--and are accompanied by color keys. From these, any needlepointer of average skill can reproduce Robert Ross's exceptionally rich and elegant designs.

On November 4, 1922, the British archaeologist Howard Carter, after years of searching, found the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings on the Nile's west bank. The discovery was hailed around the world not for the scale of the tomb itself, but for the electrifying beauty of the objects it contained.

The brevity of King Tut's reign--only nine years, during the fourteenth century B.C.--probably accounts for the modesty of the tomb, which might have been intended for a commoner and hastily converted for royal use upon the unexpected death of the nineteen-year-old King.

In contrast, the items found in the chambers were the elaborate and sophisticated work of highly skilled artisans. Some had belonged to the King while he lived. Others were crafted in only ten weeks, during the mummification process. Despite the speed with which the work must have been done, results of remarkable intricacy were achieved with an abundance of gold, copper, semiprecious stones, and fine woods.

The tremendous success of the exhibit of some of King Tut's finest treasures on its tour of the United States is yet another tribute to the genius of those ancient Egyptian craftsmen. Robert Ross has added his own tribute by using the ancient designs in his own medium with understanding and creative judgment.