LOT 0030

Egyptian Bronze Sistrum with Bes and Hathor

ROMAN PERIOD, 30 B.C.-323 A.D.

15 1/2 in. (1.52 kg, 39.5 cm).

The large liturgical rattle with a columnar handle composed of a bifacial figure of Bes standing on a lotus capital, flanked by seated sphinxes, his feathered crown supporting the bust of goddess Hathor wearing a broad collar and a curling wig, two rearing uraei emerging from the sides to support the base of the rattle, both wearing the pschent crown, above the cobras a standing figure of the goddess Hathor in cow form, wearing a tripartite wig and a sun disc between the horns; the rattle with a looped body with flared outer rims and set with three metal rods to accept metal discs, a pair of reclining lions to the base and the top with three felines surrounding a cockerel, and resting one of their front paws on the bird.

German art market.
European private collection, 1970s-early 2000s.
Acquired from the above; thence by descent.
Private collection, London, UK.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12348-225588.

Cf. Lacovara, P. et al., The Collector’s Eye: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art from The Thalassic Collection, Atlanta, 2001, for a sistrum with a Bes figure incorporated into the handle; see a late Egyptian prototype of a bronze sistrum with handle in the shape of the god Bes, 30th Dynasty, c. 350 B.C. (Neues Museum, Berlin); see a Roman sistrum in MET, accession no.97.22.2; a bronze sistrum, in the British Museum, inv.no.1756,0101.541; Daremberg, C.V. & Saglio, E. (eds.), Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, Paris, 1873-1917.

The sistrum (seshesh in ancient Egyptian) was a rattle-like musical instrument, played exclusively by women in religious ceremonies. It was often decorated with the bust of the goddess Hathor to whom the sistrum was sacred. Their use continued into the Roman period in ceremonies associated with the cult of Isis.