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LOT 0580
Egyptian Faience Nefertem Statuette with Hieroglyphs
LATE-PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 664-30 B.C.
4 1/2 in. (42.8 grams, 11.6 cm).
Presented in a striding pose with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides; wearing his emblem, the lotus-flower headdress from which two plumes emerge, and a menat on each side; dorsal pillar with hieroglyphs, beginning with the incantation: "Words spoken by Nefertum, son of Sekhmet...."
ProvenanceFrom the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.
LiteratureCf. Andrews, C., Amulets of Ancient Egypt, London, 1994, pp. 18-19, for a discussion of Nefertum amulets; Tinius, I., Altägypten in Braunschweig. Die Sammlungen des Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums und des Städtischen Museums, Wiesbaden, 2011, pp. 143-144, nos. 259-260, for two examples.
FootnotesNefertum is usually depicted as a young man wearing a headdress with a lotus flower or a crown featuring the flower. The god is often linked to beauty, healing, and the lotus flower, with his cult connected to the royal family and the cycle of rebirth. Nefertum’s imagery and symbolism associate him with themes of creation, renewal, and the sun; he symbolises the first sunlight and the pleasant scent of the Egyptian blue lotus flower, emerging from the primal waters within an Egyptian blue water lily.
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Ex London gallery and Belinda Elliston, a member of the Egyptian Exploration Society, 1940s onwards.
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