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LOT 0010
Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti of Nesitanebisheru
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, 21ST DYNASTY, CIRCA 980-935 B.C.
6 1/2 in. (314 grams total, 16.5 cm high including stand).
A vibrant blue-glazed mummiform shabti of princess Nesitanebisheru, daughter of Pinudjem II, on a custom-made display stand; modelled with arms crossed over the chest, holding a hoe in each hand, wearing a tripartite wig; netted seed bag painted on the back; the bottom half of the figure bearing eight columns of hieroglyphic text in black giving a version of the shabti spell reading:
(1) The illuminated one, the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, she says:
(2) ‘O this shabti, if one counts, if one reckons to do
(3) for the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, to cultivate the fields,
(4) to irrigate the riparian lands, to transport by boat the sand of
(5) the east (to) the west and vice-versa – now indeed obstacles are implanted
(6) therewith – as a man at his duties (to do for ?)
(7) the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, to do all the works that are to be done
(8) in God’s land at any time to serve, ‘here I am,’ (you shall say).
The object comes from the well known Deir el-Bahari cache (near Thebes) first discovered in 1870.
Ex Zurich Antiquities Fair.
Ex R. Liechti, Geneva, acquired from the above.
Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11598-198961.
Cf. Janes, G., Shabtis: A Private View, Paris, 2002, pp.107-9, for a similar example; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta USA,
inventory no. 2018.010.299, for a worker shabti of Nesitanebisheru.
Nesitanebisheru’s burial was discovered in the famous ‘Royal Cache I’ at Deir el-Bahari (DB 320), with many dozens of coffins and vast quantities of funerary equipment belonging to pharaohs, including Thutmose III and Ramesses II, queens, and other royals, as well as elite members of society that had been reburied by Amun priests to hide them from tomb robbers. Nesitanebisheru’s coffin and burial equipment, including her shabtis, were found at the very end of the c. 70m long tomb in a chamber which served as a family vault for her father, the High Priest of Amun, Pinudjem II, and his principal wife Neskhons. While her worker shabtis are all mostly similar in style with 6-8 text columns, the composition of their
inscriptions are not consistent with different openings and variations to the content (often including several peculiarities). Curiously, her titles do not appear in her shabti inscription, unlike those for her mother.
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LOT 0010
Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti of Nesitanebisheru
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000€34,800 - 46,400 (for guidance only)$40,500 - 54,000 (for guidance only)
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Egyptian Baboon-Headed Hapi Four Sons of Horus Amulet
Late Period, circa 500 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £104
A blue-glazed composition amulet formed as baboon-headed Hapi with stylised detailing to one face; two piercings for attachment or suspension. 7.13 grams, 78 mm
Fine condition.
From an old UK collection. Acquired 1960s-1990s. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016), 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.
Alf Baxendale (1941-2016), was a keen amateur Egyptologist, active from the 1960s. He was a good friend of Egyptologist Barry John Kemp who directs excavations at Amarna in Egypt. Alf helped raise funds for equipment and materials for the excavations since the 1980s, and also secured a major sponsorship from one of Britain’s leading brewers, Scottish and Newcastle. He was a member of the Egyptology Society, and became a founder trustee of the Amarna Trust in 2005. Alf bequeathed a major part of his extensive library to the Amarna Project’s offices in Cairo. -
Egyptian Faience Shabti
Late Period, 30th Dynasty, circa 380 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
A mottled green and white glazed composition shabti with dorsal pillar, tripartite wig, horizontal and vertical panels hieroglyphic (or Demotic?) text to the lower body with scribe sign. 68.5 grams, 12.5 cm high
Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private Swiss collection since 1998. -
Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti
Early Ptolemaic Period, circa 3rd century B.C.Estimate: £1,000 - 1,400 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £500
A mummiform shabti with a thick and lustrous turquoise glaze, sporting a tripartite wig highlighted in darker blue glaze, and a long beard; holding a pick, hoe and a cord for a seed bag hanging over the left shoulder; raised dorsal pillar and an integral plinth; repaired. 44 grams, 11.5 cm high
Ex collection of Jacques René Fiechter, Switzerland (1920-1950). with Auction Martin, Egyptian Collection André Bircher, 1949. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
The lack of inscription hinders positive identification, but the shabti’s proportions, elegant modelling, and lustrous glaze closely match others considered to have come from an area of the extensive necropolis at Abydos, labelled “Cemetery G” by its excavator Flinders Petrie, where hundreds of blue lustrous-glazed shabtis of varying qualities were recovered. This figure is closest in style to those belonging to Petosiris, son of Djed-hor. Both were buried with similarly blue lustrous-glazed shabtis that were mostly plain although a few were inscribed with an inscription.
