Details

LOT 0043

Important Egyptian Gilt Cartonnage Mask

21ST-22ND DYNASTY, 1069-730 BC

18" (3.4 kg total, 46cm not including stand).

A cartonnage funerary mask with gilded face and painted detailing; eyes depicted wide open with black pupils and outlines, arched black brows; the brow with circular red-painted ribbon, an ankh to the rear; above the brow a gold disc surmounted by a winged scarab; over the head a painted vulture with outstretched wings, each supporting a feather of the goddess Ma'at, and holding a baton in each of its outstretched claws; the face flanked by lateral pairs of winged ba (soul) birds with raised hands, behind each ba bird a pair of winged goddesses flanking a squatting figure wearing Atef crown, each flanked by the sign nb for gold; below, four panels of a recumbent Anubis surmount panels each with a winged falcon, themselves above a robed figure (the deceased) standing in adoration before a seated Osiris, God of the Dead, the other side with a similar figure worshipping the seated god Ra with sun-disc on his head; panels of roundels, geometric designs, wedjat eyes and other motifs; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Provenance

Formerly in the private collection of Ambassador Bréjon de Lavergnée; acquired in Cairo between 1966-1968 when he was working there for the French embassy; accompanied by old photos of the mask taken in his house in Paris in the 1970s; also accompanied by French cultural passport number 206374.

Literature

Cf. Taylor, J.H. Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, London, 2001, item 30 for type.

CONDITION