A circular bronze auguration table, engraved with the twelve zodiacal signs. There is an Arabic inscription on the back, invoking the blessings on the twelve imams of the Shiah, possibly Iran.

AUGARATION TABLE. Bronze, circular, engraved with the12 sighs of the zodiac round magical square. (Sun and lion substituted for Virgo). On back, religious inscriptions invoking blessings upon the 12 imáms of the Shiah. From Cairo. Persian. Diam. 7 ¼ in. Bought (St. Maurice Collⁿ), 10s.

Description taken from ‘List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired during the Year 1884’. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1885. p. 88

Bought from the collection of Gaston de Saint-Maurice (1831-1905) in 1884. Saint-Maurice displayed his extensive art collection at the 1878 Paris exhibition, in a gallery entitled L'Egypte des Khalifes. This was part of an official sequence of displays celebrating the history of Egypt, presented by the Egyptian state at this international event. Saint-Maurice held a position at the Khedival court, and had lived in Cairo in 1868-1878. Following the exhibition, Saint-Maurice offered his collection for sale to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A).

923-1884