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LOT 0546
Egyptian Coptic Textile Fragment
CIRCA 5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.
3 in. (11 grams total including package, 74 mm).
Central part of an orbiculus representing a six-petalled flower, S torsion, in red, yellow, olive green and blue wool. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceAcquired 1970s-1996.
Property of a North American collector.
London collection, 2016.
Cf. Del Francia Barocas, L., Museo dell'Alto Medioevo, Roma, I materiali Copti, p.102, no.13, for similar textiles.
FootnotesSimilar figures are widely presented in Coptic textiles, repeating a pattern in which flowers are usually paired with bird figures. This decoration is typical of tunics, but it was also used in large-scale textiles intended for domestic or funerary furnishings.
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AUCTIONS:
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Egyptian Bronze Figure of a Shrew
Late-Ptolemaic Period, 664-30 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £715
Modelled in the round in a crouching pose on a rectangular base with an attachment peg. 145 grams, 73 mm
From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.
This figure most likely comes from a shrew coffin or votive statuette. The dwarf shrew (Crocidura nana) and Flower’s shrew (Crocidura floweri) were among many animal species buried in dedicated cemeteries across various parts of Egypt. Ironically, these tiny creatures symbolised Horus in his raptor-headed form — a figure who, in reality, would have preyed upon them. Shrews were associated with Khenty-irty, the “seeing-and-blind god,” due to their ability to navigate darkness. It may be possible to read the shrew’s symbolism as that of seeking light in darkness, representing the Egyptian belief in the deceased’s journey through the hours of the night before rebirth at dawn. Radiographic analysis of a bundle containing about twenty-one shrews shows that they were dried whole, with no evisceration, preserved by being ‘pickled’ in natron. -
Egyptian Faience Bead Necklace
Late-Ptolemaic Period, 664-30 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £46
Composed of vibrant blue tubular and annular beads, restrung. 8.9 grams, 96 cm
Ex Norri collection, Milton Keynes, UK, 1980s-1990s. -
Phoenician Inscribed Bronze Scaraboid Seal
600-400 B.C.Estimate: £100 - 140 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £40
With ribbed loop and ellipsoid face, gryphon motif. 10.9 grams, 26 mm wide
Ex London, UK, gentleman, 1990. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
