Egyptian Mounted Coptic Textile

Modelled sleek and muscular in the round, the ears and eyes alert creating a dignified expression; piercings through the ears; hollow-formed; mounted on a custom-made display base. 629 grams total, 21.5 cm high including stand



Acquired from a French dealer, 1965. Swiss private collection. UK private collection, 1993. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11838-206398.

Possibly intended as a container for the mummified remains of a cat, or from a statuette of the goddess Bastet. The feline's pierced ears likely once held earrings or other ornaments. In ancient Egypt, cats were the sacred animal of the goddess Bastet; such objects were often given as donations at her temples.

Of mummiform type and decorated with a blue-green glaze; inscribed for a priest named Pa-di-Osiris, whose mother’s name is Sed-irt-binut; the shabti wearing a striated tripartite wig and long plaited divine beard; holding a pick in the left hand, the right hand holding a hoe and the cord of a seed bag hanging over his left shoulder; the face expertly modelled with carefully rendered cosmetic lines around the eyes, narrow eyebrows, and slightly smiling lips giving it a serene expression characteristic of the finest ushabtis of the period; standing on an integral plinth from which a plain back pillar terminating at the base of the wig extends; twelve horizontal rows of hieroglyphic inscription, the Sixth Chapter of the Book of the Dead; accompanied by a custom-made display base. 248 grams, 19.5 cm high (410 grams total, 23.5 cm high including stand)



Acquired on the Geneva art market, 1980. Swiss collection, early 1980s until 2000. UK private collection, 2000. 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 search certificate no.11802-206400.

The epithet 'true of voice' following the mother’s name, but not that of the owner, is a rather infrequent arrangement in shabti/ushabti inscriptions but can be found on other fine examples from this period. Pa-di-Osiris’s title is unusual, but may belong to the cult of the god Shu whose name is sometimes followed by the epithet, 'he who supports heaven'. The text contains Schneider’s version VIIA of The Book of the Dead Chapter 6.

Carved dressed and ready for consumption, with a plump, stylised form, head and neck resting along the animal's breast, simple linear incising delineating two folded wings to either side, circular recesses for eyes; mounted on a custom-made display stand; cleaned. 354 grams, 12.2 cm (893 grams total including stand)



Acquired before 1970. Private French collection. with Bonhams, New Bond Street, London, 29 April 2009, lot 58. Ex Middle Eastern royal family, living in the UK, 2013-2017. Accompanied by a copy of a French cultural passport no.099505. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11841-206397.