Barbara Toy followed the Mediterranean coastline of North Africa, travelling through what was then French Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, to Cyprus, then down through Lebanon, Syria and then through Jordan to Iraq. While in Iraq she visited several archaeological sites, including in May 1951 Sir Max Mallowan's excavations at Nimrud where his wife Agatha Christie was helping with processing the finds. The work on the site had just finished, and the finds for that season included the stele of King Assur-nasir-pal II. Her journey home is not described in the book, although in her second book "A Fool in the
Pratt Ivories in 1932. At the time, the sphinxes were interpreted as "little ivory stool legs" having been made by a Phoenician or Syrian craftsman for the Assyrian market. This assessment was largely based on their resemblance to pieces uncovered in excavations of the Assyrian capital, Nimrud. This comparison suggests a date of manufacture in the early first millennium B.C. From 1936 to 1937, following the death of her husband, Mrs. Pratt gave numerous other ivory pieces in three successive groups, eventually contributing sixty-six ivory objects, in addition to the three works donated in 1932. While these were immediately recognized as furniture