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LOT 0507
Egyptian Bronze Goddess Bastet as Seated Cat
LATE PERIOD-PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 664-30 B.C.
4 in. (137 grams total, 10 cm high including stand).
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.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980s.
Private collection of L.H., Staffordshire, UK.
Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.
Cf. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession numbers 2021.41.166 and 44.4.9, for similar; Tiribilli, E., The bronze figurines of the Petrie Museum from 2000 BC to AD 400, London, 2018, p.190, no.268, for similar.
FootnotesBastet 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.
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Egyptian Bust of Ptah
Late Period, 26th-30th Dynasty, circa 664-343 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £13,000
A white limestone figure of the god Ptah with false beard, wearing an enveloping cloak and a broad wesekh-collar, holding the shaft of a was sceptre; serene, oval face with almond-shaped eyes and fleshy lips; remnants of dorsal pillar to reverse; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 1.39 kg total, 22.3 cm high including stand
Ex private Belgium collection, 1960s. with Vanderkindere Auctions, Brussels, Belgium, 26 February 2013, lot 261. English private collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11605-199743. Accompanied by a scholarly note by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.
Ptah is attested from the beginning of ancient Egypt’s dynastic history and was a creator god, a god of craftsmen, and the patron deity of the Memphite region. The principal temple of the god was located in the city of Memphis. The fragmentary back pillar on this statuette indicates that it was most probably a temple offering, originally inscribed with an invocation to Ptah together with the donor’s name. Such votive figurines with back pillars naming the god and the dedicator occur in various materials, including faience and stone. -
Egyptian Harpocrates Amulet
Late Period, 664-332 B.C.Estimate: £300 - 400 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £150
A composition amulet fragment of the god Harpocrates, modelled nude, with stylised facial features and the Sidelock of Youth; light blue-green glaze with darker glaze to his hair and the lower part of the hem-hemet crown; pierced lug to reverse of crown for suspension. 6.72 grams, 51 mm high
Acquired 1980s-1990s. H.N. collection, Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire, UK. -
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Egyptian Statue Fragment Group
Circa 1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £169
A group of five ceramic and composition statuette fragments including glazed examples: a terracotta royal head with Nemes headdress and uraeus; the green glazed foot of a shabti with hieroglyphs; the head of a figure in raised relief, painted geometric column to the rear; copper-alloy strap junction displaying a human face, four-way attachment reverse; glass ram head with applied eyes and horns. 105 grams total, 21-54 mm
Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998.
