Egyptian Cobra Statuette

A heavily carved wooden kohl vessel, tubular with pierced lateral flanges and rectangular base with a stub foot to each corner; with old collector's label reading 'Coptic kohol container VI-VIII C. OFRA10P / Q Louvre Cat. des Bois de l'Egypte Copte, Paris 1986 no.39-41'. 129 grams, 19.5 cm



Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.

A vibrant blue-glazed mummiform shabti of princess Nesitanebisheru, daughter of Pinudjem II, on a custom-made display stand; modelled with arms crossed over the chest, holding a hoe in each hand, wearing a tripartite wig; netted seed bag painted on the back; the bottom half of the figure bearing eight columns of hieroglyphic text in black giving a version of the shabti spell reading: (1) The illuminated one, the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, she says: (2) ‘O this shabti, if one counts, if one reckons to do (3) for the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, to cultivate the fields, (4) to irrigate the riparian lands, to transport by boat the sand of (5) the east (to) the west and vice-versa – now indeed obstacles are implanted (6) therewith – as a man at his duties (to do for ?) (7) the Osiris Nesitanebisheru, to do all the works that are to be done (8) in God’s land at any time to serve, ‘here I am,’ (you shall say). 314 grams total, 16.5 cm high including stand



The object comes from the well known Deir el-Bahari cache (near Thebes) first discovered in 1870. Ex Zurich Antiquities Fair. Ex R. Liechti, Geneva, acquired from the above. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11598-198961.

Nesitanebisheru’s burial was discovered in the famous ‘Royal Cache I’ at Deir el-Bahari (DB 320), with many dozens of coffins and vast quantities of funerary equipment belonging to pharaohs, including Thutmose III and Ramesses II, queens, and other royals, as well as elite members of society that had been reburied by Amun priests to hide them from tomb robbers. Nesitanebisheru’s coffin and burial equipment, including her shabtis, were found at the very end of the c. 70m long tomb in a chamber which served as a family vault for her father, the High Priest of Amun, Pinudjem II, and his principal wife Neskhons. While her worker shabtis are all mostly similar in style with 6-8 text columns, the composition of their inscriptions are not consistent with different openings and variations to the content (often including several peculiarities). Curiously, her titles do not appear in her shabti inscription, unlike those for her mother.

A blue glazed bifacial scaraboid; one side bearing the cartouche of Thutmose III and the legend “Enduring image of Re” and the other side Seti I’s throne name Men-Maat-Re (meaning “Eternal is the Justice of Re”) with other signs for an epithet that perhaps reads as “truly praised (of Re)”; pierced for suspension. 4.11 grams, 23 mm



From an old UK collection. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016) part 2, keen Egyptologist, member of the Egyptology Society, trustee of the Amarna Trust; thence by descent. Accompanied by an identification display card. Accompanied by a copy of his obituary published in Horizon, The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust newsletter, Issue 18, 2017, p.21, by Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directing excavations at Amarna in Egypt.

Seti I's reign saw the production of many scarabs, scaraboids and plaques bearing his name as well as that of Thutmose III - who was considered a great warrior king.