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LOT 0023
Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti
EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY B.C.
4 1/2 in. (44 grams, 11.5 cm high).
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.
ProvenanceEx 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.
Cf. Janes, G., The Shabti Collections 6: A Selection from World Museum, Liverpool, Cheshire, 2016, p.518, nos.272a-b, p.521, no.275; Fitzwilliam Museum, no. E.GA.2636.1943, for similar.
FootnotesThe 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.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0023
Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti
Estimate £1,000 - 1,400€1,160 - 1,620 (for guidance only)$1,350 - 1,890 (for guidance only)
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Egyptian Bronze Goddess Bastet as Seated Cat
Late Period-Ptolemaic Period, 664-30 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £975
A bronze figure of the cat goddess Bastet, squatting poised and alert with her tail wrapped close to right side of her body, seated on a tongue-shaped base, short lug below; accompanied by a custom-made display base. 137 grams total, 10 cm high including stand
Acquired 1980s. Private collection of L.H., Staffordshire, UK. Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.
Bastet was a powerful goddess of Lower Egypt, one who was protective and could bring about great prosperity. Cat statuettes were among some of the most common zoomorphic dedications of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Small statuettes like this one would have been dedicated as offerings to temples or deposited in catacombs alongside cat mummies, as at the extensive catacombs at Bubastis and Saqqara. Sometimes larger hollow examples held a cat mummy inside. -
Coptic Kohl Container
6th-7th century A.D.Estimate: £1,200 - 1,700 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £600
A heavily carved wooden kohl vessel, tubular with pierced lateral flanges and rectangular base with a stub foot to each corner; with old collector's label reading 'Coptic kohol container VI-VIII C. OFRA10P / Q Louvre Cat. des Bois de l'Egypte Copte, Paris 1986 no.39-41'. 129 grams, 19.5 cm
Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection. -
Egyptian Offering Cup Lid Fragment Group
New Kingdom, 1550-1070 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £52
A mixed group of fragments from the lids of offering cups in shades of cream, blue and turquoise. 29 grams total, 36-40 mm
From a UK private collection, 1975-1978.
