Egyptian Papyrus Fragments in Display Stand

Complete funerary cone with a long tapering form, the circular flat end impressed with four rows of hieroglyphic text, reading: 'Honoured before Osiris, fourth god’s servant (of) Amun, Montuemhat, true of voice, his wife, his beloved, king’s acquaintance, lady of the house, Shepenmut, true of voice'. 1.41 kg total, 27 cm wide including stand



Acquired from Abdoul Rassoul on the West Bank at Luxor, 1974-1980 when a guest lecturer. From the private collection of Peter Clayton, FCILIP, Dip, Arch, FSA, FRNS, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK; formed since the late 1950s.

Montuemhat, Mayor of Thebes and Governor of Upper Egypt, was possibly the most powerful official of his era in southern Egypt. He built one of the largest and most lavishly decorated nonroyal tombs known (TT34), which still dominates the Asasif landscape today. Shepenmut was Montuemhat's second wife.

Complete tunic patterned with a large tapestry-woven neck panel in red and green wool, with three descending clavi divided into three pendant terminals, the inside ornamented with geometric patterns; the red wool used as twining to outline the edge of the neck and the clavi; two small orbiculi visible on the shoulders in dark blue wool, two other orbiculi applied on the thighs, on both sides of the tunic, two of them decorated with a warrior dwarf holding a shield in green, red and yellow wool; the short sleeves ornamented with four stripes (loroi) in dark red, dark blue, blue-purple and green wool; lateral red clavi running along the sides; the sides and the sleeves finished with short fringes of twisted loops. 1.03 kg total including paper folder, 102 x 76 cm



Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Depicting a husband and wife seated side-by-side on chairs, each with an arm around the spouse's waist as a sign of intimacy; both wearing richly pleated robes, the man sporting a duplex wig and earrings, the woman with a longer wig with tassel ends, both composed of long rows of tight curls; the back slab with low-relief depictions of a standing man and woman facing each other, with traces of a hieroglyphic inscription; the surface slightly worn and abraded in places; reassembled from two parts. 3.89 kg, 24.5 cm



From the estate of the artist Margo Veillon (1907-2003), Lausanne, Switzerland.

The statuette is delicately sculpted and of high quality. The fine facial features of the official, the individual strands of the wigs and the pleats of the robes exhibit exquisite craftsmanship. Remarkably, the reverse of the sculpture is decorated with a fragmentarily preserved scene, most likely of the couple, with traces of inscription.