Details

LOT 0008

Egyptian Steatite Fragmentary Pectoral with Central Scarab Element

NEW KINGDOM, 20TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 1186-1069 B.C.

2 3/4 in. (4 1/2 in.) (53 grams, 69 mm (157 grams total, 11.5 cm including stand)).

Obverse with scarab carved in high-relief and wing-case recessed to accept inlays (now absent), flanked by a small female goddess wearing a tall headdress, almost certainly Nephthys, with her arms raised in supplication; column with text to her rear, covered in gold foil and perhaps to be read as 'May my name be victorious: protection..'; reverse with the upper body of a male figure facing right with both arms raised towards the remains of a recumbent Anubis on a plinth above the top of a fragmentary shield-shaped plaque with incised text beginning 'Osiris Lord of Eternity forever..'; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Provenance

Eric Pascoe (d. 2019), Calenick House, Truro, Cornwall.
Lodge & Thomas, Truro, Antiques & Fine Art Two Day Auction-Including the Ron Clifford Collection of Dinky & Britain's Toys, 26-27 September 2019, no.684.
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale.
with Bonhams, London, 8 December 2022, no.265.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Footnotes

This fragment from an elaborate pectoral may exemplify an innovative design characteristic of the Ramesside Period, during which iconographic and textual elements began to diverge from the more conventional styles of earlier pectorals. For a discussion of some of these novel pectorals, refer to Whelan, P., 'An Epithet-Laden Pectoral,' Egitto e Vicino Oriente, 46 (2023), pp.7-28.