LOT 0037

Egyptian Brown Glazed Shabti for Queen Isetnofret

NEW KINGDOM, 12TH CENTURY B.C.

4 1/4 in. (88 grams, 10.8 cm).

Of mummiform type, wearing a tripartite wig, stylised facial features with large ears, hands crossed at the chest; a contrasting green-glazed frontal column of hieroglyphic text with a cartouche which reads wsỉr nswt wrt Ꜣst-nfr.t, ‘The Osiris, the great king's wife Iset-nofret’.

Acquired on the German art market, 1989-1995.
with The Museum Gallery, 19 Bury Place, London, WC1, UK, 1998-2003.
Property of a London based academic, 2003-present.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12373-226026.

Cf. Moje, J., Schabtis und verwandte Figurinen Mit den Beständen der Berliner Antikensammlung, des Museums für Vor- und Frühgeschichte und des Vorderasiatischen Museums, Band 2, Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum, London, 2024, pp.28-30, for two shabtis of the queen in Berlin (inv. nos. ÄM333 and 334).

Several late New Kingdom queens were named Iset-nofret, but this particular example is likely associated with one of the two wives of Ramesses II who had the same name. One of these queens gave birth to Prince Khaemwaset and is mentioned on monuments erected by him. While it is possible that the queen's shabtis were used for funerary purposes, Khaemwaset is known to have placed his own shabtis as votives in non-sepulchral locations in the Memphite necropolises, and it is possible that he also did the same with shabtis naming his mother.
For a discussion of the Ramesside queens with this name, see Tyldesley, J., Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, London, 2006, p.154ff.