Egyptian Green Glazed Somtous Seated on Lotus Flower

LATE PERIOD, CIRCA 664-332 B.C.

2 5/8 in. (39.76 grams total, 68 mm high including stand).

Modelled in the round, the nude seated figure of the child Somtous, with one hand to his lips and a prominent sidelock, emerging from a lotus flower; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Provenance

Noriuchi Horiuchi, Tokyo, Japan, 1993.
Private collection, London, UK.

Literature

See Gaber, H., Servajean, F., Du pays de Pount aux rives du Nil: parfums d’Égypte, Gand, 2024, pp. 196-197, for discussion and an example in bronze.

Footnotes

The earliest attestations of the cult of Somtous, known as Sematawy in ancient Egyptian, date back to the New Kingdom, although it became particularly popular during the Late Period. Associated with Horus (Horsomtous), the symbol of the child emerging from the lotus represented the (re)birth of the sun god. Thus, Somtous was regarded as a life-giving amuletic symbol, sometimes even referred to as 'Sematawy the child who gives life.'

CONDITION

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LOT 0056