LOT 0006

Egyptian Faience Shabti of Amunemhat-Pa-Mesha

21ST DYNASTY, 1069-945 BC

4 3/4" (5 1/4") (104 grams, 12.2cm (121 grams total, 13.3cm including stand)).

A bright turquoise-glazed mummiform shabti figure wearing a tripartite wig, arms crossed and holding two hoes; the wig and kohl-rimmed eyes painted in black; a vertical column of painted hieroglyphs to the body reading 'Amen(em)hatpamesha' for 'prophet of Amun'; accompanied by a custom-made display stand.

Galerie Günter Puhze, Kunst der Antike 14, p.30 & 244, no.240.
Bonhams, London, 16 May 2002, lot 409.
Private collection of Egyptologist Paul Whelan, Hertfordshire, UK.
Accompanied by copies of the relevant Bonhams and Galerie Günter Puhze catalogue pages, and a copy of the Bonhams invoice.

Cf. Schneider, H.D., Shabtis, Leiden, 1977, fig.4.31.1.10/11; see Aubert, L., Les statuettes funéraires de la Deuxiéme Cachette å Deir el-Bahari, Paris, 1998, p. 52, no. 3; p.108, pl.1, no. 3; other examples of this shabti are in major European collections, e.g. Berlin, Copenhagen, Florence, Leiden, Lisbon, London (UCL), Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Oslo, Paris (Louvre); two papyri of the deceased are in Cairo.

The cachette of the burial of priests of Amun was found by the Abdul Rassoul family c. 1890 and included 101 sarcophagi and 110 boxes of shabtis. Several hundred shabtis were dispersed in the market before the cache was officially declared to the authorities under Georges Daressy in 1900. Shabtis were placed in tombs and were intended to act as servants for the deceased in the afterlife. The shabti figurines carry the name of the owner along with a phrase sending them to action, inscribed to the lower body and legs of the figurine.