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LOT 0007
Egyptian Alabaster Alabastron
LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.
3 3/8 in. (174 grams, 87 mm high).
With small everted rim, the body of oval shape with two ear-shaped vestigial handles; rim chipped and base partly absent.
ProvenanceMary Stout Shaw (1880-1962); thence by direct descent to the present owner.
Accompanied by a copy of a 1976 family photo featuring some of the collection on display.
Cf. Aston, B.G., Ancient Egyptian Stone Vessels: Materials and Forms, SAGA 5, Heidelberg, 1994, p.166, no.227a, for a similar example of the type.
FootnotesMary Kilgour Stone was born in 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio. On 25 November 1903, she married Percy Wyfold Stout from Gloucester (DSO, OBE, 1875-1937), who had moved to Cairo after an international rugby career.
After fighting in the First World War, Percy became the Director of the Egyptian Delta Land Company and the Anglo-American Nile Tourist Company. He and Mary were friends with the famous Major Gayer-Anderson, who worked as a doctor on the company’s cruise boats between 1930 and 1939. Gayer-Anderson tells in his memoir how this allowed him to make frequent trips to Upper Egypt and fulfil his passion for collecting (and dealing in) ancient Egyptian art.
In his company, Mary became an enthusiast about all things Egypt and formed an elegant collection of ancient Egyptian alabaster vessels,
including the following lots. She was particularly fascinated with the ancient cat goddess Bastet. Therefore, when Gayer-Anderson decided
to give his famous ancient bronze cat to the British Museum in 1939, he made sure the donation was in both his name and Mary Stout Shaw’s, as a tribute to their friendship.
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LOT 0007
Egyptian Alabaster Alabastron
Estimate £600 - 800€700 - 930 (for guidance only)$810 - 1,080 (for guidance only)
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Egyptian Multi-Stranded Mummy Bead Necklace
Late Period, 664-525 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £85
Multi-stranded restrung composition necklace composed of beads of mainly annular and tubular types. 27 grams, 66 cm
Acquired before 1979. From the private collection of Mr F. A., South Kensington, London, UK; thence by descent 2014.
For thousands of years, artisans in Egypt created vibrant ceramics to echo the beauty of rare jewels. These ornaments were created with almost every material, colour, and texture imaginable and they come from across Egypt and beyond: vibrant blue lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, glossy black obsidian from Turkey, and aqua-green turquoise from the Sinai. They were worn in life and, after death, they served as precious ornamentation for mummies. -
Egyptian Faience Mummy Bead Mask with Four Sons of Horus
Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £312
A netted beadwork panel of annular and tubular glazed composition beads in blues, greens, black, cream and red-brown colours, depicting a mummy face mask with a false beard, a scarab with extended wings below, and the 'Four Sons of Horus’ figures beneath the scarab, joined together with areas of open netting of tubular examples; restrung with some later beads. 113 grams, 30 cm
Ex Mariaud des Serres, Paris, France, 1990s.
Winged scarabs were often used as funerary amulets and believed to symbolise the deceased's rebirth and regeneration. The Four Sons of Horus were deities responsible for protecting the deceased's internal organs. Here, on the left, is the erect-eared jackal-headed Duamutef who protects the stomach, followed by the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, who protects the intestines, then the human-headed Imsety, protector of the liver and, finally, the baboon-headed Hapy on the right, protector of the lungs. The internal organs were often placed in canopic jars with the head of the respective Son of Horus. Amulets depicting these deities were placed within the mummy wrappings. -
Egyptian Flint Handaxe
Lower Palaeolithic Period, circa 450,000-280,000 B.P.Sold for (Inc. bp): £33
Irregular in plan with biconvex section. 380 grams, 14 cm
Found Egypt, North Africa. From the British art market in the 1970s-1980s. Acquired via inheritance, 1988. From the collection of a South West London, UK, specialist Stone Age collector.
