Egyptian Blue Glazed Faience Shabti

LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.

4 1/4 in. (72 grams, 10.7 cm).

With dorsal pillar, hands folded across the chest holding a pick and hoe, with a front panel of faintly impressed hieroglyphic text. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Ex M.S. Ciappara collection, Norfolk, UK, 1939-1950.

Literature

Cf. von Droste zu Hülsdorf, V. and Schlick-Nolte, B., Ägyptische Bildwerke II: Statuetten, Gefässe und Geräte, Melsungen, 1990, pp.167-169, no. 81, for the type.

Footnotes

Shabti figures were created to carry out heavy manual tasks on behalf of a person in the afterlife. They were often depicted with tools in their hands, such as baskets, mattocks, and hoes. Over time, the number of shabtis in a standard elite burial increased, from one in the Eighteenth Dynasty to several in the Nineteenth Dynasty, to one for every day of the year by the Third Intermediate Period. The number of shabtis remained in the hundreds during the Late Period.

CONDITION

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LOT 0503