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Details
LOT 0448
Large Egyptian Steatite Scarab with Sphinx
LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.
1 1/4 in. (13.4 grams, 32 mm).
With detailed carapace, head, and legs; the underside depicting the king as an advancing sphinx trampling a male enemy in a short kilt, with a rearing cobra behind, a pair of ostrich feathers atop a sun disc in front, and the symbol for foreign lands placed in the curl of the sphinx’s tail.
Provenance
From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Matouk, F.S., Corpus du scarabée égyptien. Vol. 2: Analyse thématique, Beirut, 1976, 355, no. 1532, for a similar thematic scarab design.
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