Egyptian Limestone Fragment with Face

A rare example of a terracotta shabti depicting an overseer wearing a civil kilt, incised whip over his right shoulder; stylised facial features with pinched profile and incised eyes, nostrils and mouth; incised stripe to the left shoulder; accompanied by a custom-made stand. 303 grams, 22.5 cm (465 grams total, 28 cm including stand)

Fine condition.

Acquired 1979-1999. London collection of the late Mr S.M., thence by descent. Accompanied by a copy of a previous cataloguing slip. Accompanied by an original thermoluminescence analysis report no.N122j43, from Oxford Authentication.

Many crude clay shabtis are known from provincial sites such as Deir Rifeh and Abydos, with dates ranging from the Late New Kingdom - Ptolemaic Period. This overseer figure would favour a dating closer to the earlier date, when overseer shabtis were a common feature.

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 mixed group of mainly composition artefacts and fragments comprising: a steatite scarab beetle inscribed with a scarab, cobra and crown to base, 2024-1700 B.C.; tilapia fish, symbol of regeneration, c.1300 B.C.; Taweret hippopotamus goddess of child birth, c.1300 B.C.; sphinx amulet, c.1300 B.C; alabaster kohl jar fragment sticks, c.1400 B.C.; Djed pillar amulet, c.600-300 B.C.; stone playing counter, c.300-50 B.C.; two fruit amulets, c.18th-19th Dynasty; fragment of a large Eye of Horus, c.600 B.C.; Eye of Horus amulet with nfr sign on reverse, c. 1000 B.C. 66.8 grams total, 8-39 mm



From an old UK collection. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016) part 2, keen Egyptologist, member of the Egyptology Society, trustee of the Amarna Trust; thence by descent. Accompanied by twelve identification display cards. Accompanied by a copy of his obituary published in Horizon, The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust newsletter, Issue 18, 2017, p.21, by Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directing excavations at Amarna in Egypt.