This piece is remarkable for its rich inlays. Both sides of each blade are decorated with three registers of figures. Whoever created the design clearly had a sense of humor; when the shears are closed, the top register brings a dog face-to-face with a cat on one side and a lion on the other. The combination of vague iconography, attenuated drawing, and dour expressions marks the shears as in an "Egyptianizing" rather than an actual Egyptian style. Perhaps they served a ritual function at an Isis sanctuary at ancient Trebizond on the Black Sea, the site where they are said to have been found..
