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LOT 0009
Egyptian Animal Birthing Diorama
MIDDLE KINGDOM, 11TH-12TH DYNASTY, 2023-1862 B.C.
3 3/4 - 6 1/4 in. (111 grams total, 9.5-16 cm).
A wooden animal birthing scene composed of three figures: a standing cow or other quadruped giving birth to its young, its head, neck and forelegs emerging from the mother's rear, both with a black and white speckled coat; a standing male figure with articulated arms and pierced hands, wearing a kilt and cropped wig and with stylised facial detailing; a kneeling figure also with articulated arms, open-palm hands, wearing a kilt and cropped wig, stylised facial features; extensive remains of polychrome pigment. [3]
ProvenanceFrom an early 20th century Home Counties collection.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11597-199209.
Cf. Barker, G., Preparing for Eternity: Funerary models and wall scenes from the Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdoms, Oxford, 2022, p.113 figure 4.2, for a near identical calving cow figure possibly from Meir (now in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, inv. no. 910.18.16.1-3); cf. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession numbers 2021.41.170 and 11.150.5, for similar human and animal figures of this date.
FootnotesSuch models would have been deposited in tombs; the purpose of such a scene was probably to evoke the season of spring, when calves were born, and the floodplain where farmers lived and raised their livestock.
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LOT 0009
Egyptian Animal Birthing Diorama
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000€5,800 - 8,120 (for guidance only)$6,750 - 9,450 (for guidance only)
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Egyptian Faience Scaraboid of Seti I and Thutmose III
New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, 1314-1304 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,040
A blue glazed bifacial scaraboid; one side bearing the cartouche of Thutmose III and the legend “Enduring image of Re” and the other side Seti I’s throne name Men-Maat-Re (meaning “Eternal is the Justice of Re”) with other signs for an epithet that perhaps reads as “truly praised (of Re)”; pierced for suspension. 4.11 grams, 23 mm
From an old UK collection. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016) part 2, keen Egyptologist, member of the Egyptology Society, trustee of the Amarna Trust; thence by descent. Accompanied by an identification display card. Accompanied by a copy of his obituary published in Horizon, The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust newsletter, Issue 18, 2017, p.21, by Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directing excavations at Amarna in Egypt.
Seti I's reign saw the production of many scarabs, scaraboids and plaques bearing his name as well as that of Thutmose III - who was considered a great warrior king. -
Egyptian Bull-Headed Apis Shabti Head
New Kingdom, Ramesside Period, 1295-1069 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,690
A glazed composition shabti fragment representing the head of a bull surmounted by a sun-disc between its horns, wearing a lappet wig and with human arms crossed over the chest; the missing lower portion continued the shape of a mummiform human body; the back of the figure flat and bearing faint traces of inscription, the opening begins with a common shabti introduction which appears to be followed (as would be expected) by the name of syncretic deity Osiris Apis. 34 grams, 60 mm
Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998. Accompanied by a scholarly note by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
The figure comes from the catacombs at Saqqara where the sacred Apis bulls were buried, known today as the Serapeum. The Apis bull was associated principally with the gods Ptah, patron deity of Memphis, and Osiris, and when one died it was afforded the kind of lavish burial befitting a pharaoh. All bull-headed shabtis date to the 19th and 20th Dynasties and were left as offerings beside the huge granite sarcophagi of the deified bulls. These shabtis were among hundreds of objects recovered from the catacombs by Auguste Mariette during his excavations there between 1850-1853. The Musée du Louvre in Paris holds the largest collection of artefacts from the Serapeum outside Egypt, including around 120 Apis shabtis. They reveal that the this fragment with its sun-disc is from a rare variant of this shabti type; just 5 of the Louvre examples have sun-discs (S 1823, N 5234 51-54), the remaining shabtis have a bull’s head with short stubby horns and no sun-disc. -
Egyptian Lapis Lazuli Falcon-Head Scarab
Late Period, 664-343 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £4,680
A lapis lazuli amuletic scarab with the falcon head of Ra with lappet headdress and broad collar; ribbed loop to the underside for suspension 6.9 grams, 25 mm
UK art market, prior 2000. English private collection.
This scarab was probably attached to the mummy, and its falcon head symbolising the sun-god Ra served to emphasise the solar aspect of the amulet, and give added potency to its regenerative power.
