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LOT 0534
Egyptian Faience Mummy Bead Mask with Four Sons of Horus
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C.
11 7/8 in. (113 grams, 30 cm).
A netted beadwork panel of annular and tubular glazed composition beads in blues, greens, black, cream and red-brown colours, depicting a mummy face mask with a false beard, a scarab with extended wings below, and the 'Four Sons of Horus’ figures beneath the scarab, joined together with areas of open netting of tubular examples; restrung with some later beads.
ProvenanceEx Mariaud des Serres, Paris, France, 1990s.
LiteratureCf. Manley, B., and Dodson, A., Life Everlasting. National Museum of Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins, Edinburgh, 2010, p.114, no.43, for a bead-work shroud incorporating the mask, winged scarab, and Four Sons of Horus.
FootnotesWinged scarabs were often used as funerary amulets and believed to symbolise the deceased's rebirth and regeneration.
The Four Sons of Horus were deities responsible for protecting the deceased's internal organs. Here, on the left, is the erect-eared jackal-headed Duamutef who protects the stomach, followed by the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, who protects the intestines, then the human-headed Imsety, protector of the liver and, finally, the baboon-headed Hapy on the right, protector of the lungs. The internal organs were often placed in canopic jars with the head of the respective Son of Horus. Amulets depicting these deities were placed within the mummy wrappings.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0534
Egyptian Faience Mummy Bead Mask with Four Sons of Horus
Sold for (Inc. bp): £312
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Egyptian Blue Glazed Bastet Amulet
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, circa 1504-1452 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Modelled resting on a rectangular base, with fur-texture detailing and hieroglyph to the underside. 2.01 grams, 17.59 mm
From an old Suffolk, UK, collection. Acquired in the UK before 1980. From the personal collection of Derek Rogers, Suffolk, UK.
The cat was sacred to Bastet, a protective mother goddess and the daughter of the sun god Re. Amulets provided the wearer with the goddess's protection. Her name means ‘she of the bast [ointment jar],’ which may have contained a substance favoured by or exclusive to royalty. Originally, Bastet was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, but by the New Kingdom, she was typically depicted with a cat's head. She is sometimes shown with kittens, emphasising her maternal role as a fierce protector of offspring. -
Egyptian Painted Limestone Shabti for Abet-iyiry
Late New Kingdom, circa 1100 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £910
With remains of pigment to the tripartite wig, face and eyes; vertical band of hieroglyphic inscription in black on the front giving dedication: 'sḥḏ wsir Ꜣbt-iyiry(?) mꜢʾ ḫrw' ‘The illuminated, the Osiris, Abet-iyiry(?), true of voice’; with remains of red borders and red detailing to the back. 162 grams, 13.3 cm
Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016. -
Phoenician Bronze Scarab
Late 1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £400 - 600 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £200
Scaraboid with incised detailing to the underside, with a central column depicting standing figures top and bottom, each flanked by two ankh symbols, and a central motif of a standing figure grasping a sceptre and winged serpent in each hand. 6.54 grams, 17 mm
From an early 20th century Home Counties, UK, collection.
