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LOT 0051
Egyptian Painted Wooden Mummy Mask
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY B.C.
11 3/4 in. (1.04 kg, 30 cm).
D-shaped in plan with carved facial detailing, thick nose and full lips; painted bands to the brow, pierced in three places for attachment.
ProvenanceSwiss private collection, Zurich, assembled in the 1950s.
Private collection.
Acquired on the Zurich art market in 2013.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12847-241680.
Cf. for a similar mask Derbala, A., Müller, A., ‘Cartonnage to Plaster. Mummy Masks of the Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods from Tuna el-Gebel’ in Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2022/2, fig.17, p.49.
FootnotesThe cartonnage mask from the Ptolemaic Period (305-30 BC) was a funerary covering made of wood or layers of papyrus/linen and plaster, modelled and painted, which covered the face of the mummy, often gilded, decorated with coloured glass and stones, and depicted the deceased with an idealized face and golden skin to protect him and guarantee him rebirth as a deity in the afterlife, combining Egyptian tradition with Graeco-Roman influences.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Egyptian Bronze Figure of Isis and Horus
Late Period, 664-332 B.C.Estimate: £800 - 1,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £400
Isis enthroned wearing a cow's horn headdress with a solar disc fronted by uraeus, suckling the infant Horus on her lap; Horus with a side-lock of youth. 73.4 grams, 68 mm
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Isis was the sister-wife of Osiris and the mother of the sky god Horus. She is associated with aspects of fertility and motherhood and is often depicted in various artworks seated in a nursing pose with her son Horus on her lap, as here. -
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Egyptian Faience Amulet of Tawaret
664-332 B.C.Estimate: £350 - 450 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £175
Modelled in the round, with a dorsal pillar and a loop at the shoulder, the goddess is in hippopotamus form, with a human torso and arms and a crocodile tail. 7.9 grams, 50 mm
Private collection, Carouge, Switzerland, assembled in the 1980s-1990s. Thence by descent to the collection of Mr S.P., since 2020. -
Egyptian Faience Amulet Group
New Kingdom-Ptolemaic Period, 1550-30 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £156
Comprising a large standing Bes statuette on a rectangular base and a smaller Bes pierced for suspension; four scarabs with detailing to the upper face and incised signs and motifs on the underside; a tear-shaped bunch of grapes with a broken suspension loop; a lozenge-shaped pierced for suspension. 11 grams total, 9-38 mm
From the Walter Thomas Gaze Cooper (1895-1980) collection; thence by descent.
