Egyptian Gilt Stucco Sphinx

A glazed composition shabti fragment representing the head of a bull surmounted by a sun-disc between its horns, wearing a lappet wig and with human arms crossed over the chest; the missing lower portion continued the shape of a mummiform human body; the back of the figure flat and bearing faint traces of inscription, the opening begins with a common shabti introduction which appears to be followed (as would be expected) by the name of syncretic deity Osiris Apis. 34 grams, 60 mm



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998. Accompanied by a scholarly note by Egyptologist Paul Whelan.

The figure comes from the catacombs at Saqqara where the sacred Apis bulls were buried, known today as the Serapeum. The Apis bull was associated principally with the gods Ptah, patron deity of Memphis, and Osiris, and when one died it was afforded the kind of lavish burial befitting a pharaoh. All bull-headed shabtis date to the 19th and 20th Dynasties and were left as offerings beside the huge granite sarcophagi of the deified bulls. These shabtis were among hundreds of objects recovered from the catacombs by Auguste Mariette during his excavations there between 1850-1853. The Musée du Louvre in Paris holds the largest collection of artefacts from the Serapeum outside Egypt, including around 120 Apis shabtis. They reveal that the this fragment with its sun-disc is from a rare variant of this shabti type; just 5 of the Louvre examples have sun-discs (S 1823, N 5234 51-54), the remaining shabtis have a bull’s head with short stubby horns and no sun-disc.

A gold amulet depicting the god Horus represented here as a falcon, surmounting the rectangular serekh, in turn considered to represent the façade of a royal palace; a pair of piercings through the base for suspension; remains of bitumen. 1.13 grams, 9 mm

Fine condition.

Early 20th century French collection.

A ceramic black burnished ware pilgrim's flask of discoid form, short neck with collar, body with raised concentric roundels to both faces. 296 grams, 15.8 cm high



Acquired in Egypt in 1960 whilst working at the British Council. Ex Andrews collection.

This resembles an Etruscan style bucchero impasto flask of circa 700-600 B.C., suggesting that this was an import into Egypt; a comparable example is in the Penn Museum (inventory no. MS 3431).