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LOT 0468
Egyptian Hardstone Scarab with Bes
LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.
1 1/4 in. (10.7 grams, 31 mm).
Plano-convex in section with detailed obverse, the underside with the figure of Bes flanked by adoring baboons and sun disks.
ProvenanceEx London, UK collection, 1990s.
LiteratureCf. Matouk, F.S., Corpus du scarabée égyptien. Vol. 2: Analyse thématique, Beirut, 1976, p.345, no.584, for the baboon and Bes motif.
FootnotesBes became one of ancient Egypt's most popular apotropaic deities from the New Kingdom onwards. Despite his somewhat fearful appearance, Bes was the patron and protector of pregnant women and children and believed to protect the wearer from snakes. The depiction of baboons flanking Bes with their arms raised before the sun disk was a common feature on temple wall reliefs. In ancient Egyptian religious literature, baboons heralded the dawn and, thus, the rebirth of the sun.
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Egyptian Bronze Eye Inlay
Late Period, 664-332 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £715
Comprising a bronze frame with a delicately modelled tear duct, inset with a white hardstone scalera and a large black glass pupil. 33 grams, 62 mm
Ex AB collection, 1920s-1930s. Accompanied by an old collection ticket.
Mummy masks were used as a protection over the deceased and were first introduced during the First Intermediate Period. The eyes were thought to fend off evil by reflecting it back to the one bestowing it. -
Egyptian Faience Scarab Group
Late Period, 664-332 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £416
Group of three scarabs, each with a hieroglyphic inscription to the underside. 5.05 grams total, 16-18 mm
Acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. -
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Egyptian Limestone Painted Shabti Inscribed for Ir-Nu
New Kingdom, 19th-20th Dynasty, 1295-1077 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £18,200
Inscribed for Ir-nu; with carefully modelled face, large eyes and unnaturally large ears, wearing a neck-strap, a long tripartite wig with incised striations and a broad three-band collar; holding a pick in his left hand, a hoe in the right and a seed bag hanging over the left shoulder; the unusual position of the hands opposed on the chest; the text beginning in the vertical column running down the front of the figure, continuing in five horizontal bands with pale red-ochre pigment colouring to the top, middle and bottom bands; the same pigment used to colour the implements and also alternates with blue striations of the wig, the neck strap and details of the collar also in blue; the inscription from the Book of the Dead Chapter 6, reading: (Vertical column:) 'The illuminated one, the Osiris' (Horizontal rows:) 1) Ir-nu, true of voice, he says: O, this shabti 2) if one is counted, if one is reckoned to do the work 3) [to do all that is to be done in] the god’s land, to cultivate the riparian lands, transport by boat 4) [sand of] the west to the east, to act 5) at any time, to serve there (you) shall say true of voice(?). 1.4 kg total, 28.4 cm high including stand
Carieau family collection, Belgium, acquired in 1952. Ex Maspero collection, Paris, 1963. Acquired from a private European collection, in 1978. Accompanied by a copy of a technical report by Edmund S. Meltzer Ph.D. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12080-217053.
