LOT 0044

Egyptian Blue Faience Shabti

EARLY PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY B.C.

4 1/2 in. (44 grams, 11.5 cm high).

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.

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.

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.

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 similar blue lustrous-glazed shabtis that were mostly plain although a few were inscribed with an inscription.