LOT 0030

Egyptian Anubis Staff Terminal

1ST CENTURY B.C.- 2ND CENTURY A.D.

5 in. (223 grams, 12.7 cm high).

A bronze staff or sceptre terminal formed as a priest of Anubis with jackal's head and human body, standing and wearing a tightly-draped toga with right hand extended in a fist; square base and socket to the underside.

Private collection, since 1989.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11604-199678.

Cf. The British Museum, museum number EA36064 'Solid-cast copper alloy figure of Anubis wearing a short robe and holding a palm branch', for a comparable figure of this broad period; see Andrews, C., Amulets of Ancient Egypt, London, 1994, p.46-7, for discussion; see also, Tiradritti, F., The Cairo Museum Masterpieces of Egyptian Art, London, 1999, p. 401, for a slightly more elaborate bronze staff terminal of Anubis as a Roman legionnaire (Cairo Museum inv. no. CG27694).

Anubis was the ancient Egyptian god of the dead - represented in jackal form or in the form of a jackal-headed man - and one of ancient Egypt's most iconic deities. Originally god of the underworld, he was eventually associated more specifically with the embalming process and funerary rites. His fur was generally depicted as black owing to the association of that colour with fertility and beliefs regarding rebirth in the afterlife.