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Details
LOT 0473
Egyptian Black Hardstone Sphinx
LATE PERIOD-PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 500-31 B.C.
2 in. (74 grams total, 50 mm long including base).
An Egyptian or Graeco-Roman hardstone female sphinx modelled in the round, sitting on a sub-rectangular base, her hair tied in a bun on the top of her head, circular socket to the top face behind the head; mounted on a custom-made antique wooden display base.
Provenance
From Saqqara in the late 1960s.
With John Cummings, Lincolnshire, UK, 1990s.
Acquired 20 May 1997.
Property of a South Oxfordshire private collector.
Accompanied by an original invoice no.6469 dated 20 May 1997.
Accompanied by a scholarly note by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
Literature
Cf. a heavily worn steatite(?) winged sphinx, dated to 90-10 B.C., was found at Meroe and is now in The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, inv.no.22-1-609.
Footnotes
This type of sphinx amulet is quite rare in Egypt, for instance, the vast output and variety of amulets identified from the Late Period industrial-scale workshops at Naukratis does not include three-dimensional winged sphinxes, only their image impressed in scarabs, suggesting that this example may have been an import and/or once the possession of a Greek person in Egypt.
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