A very large shabti with tripartite wig and plaited beard, hoe and flail in the crossed hands, black glaze to the head and right shoulder; square base and dorsal pillar, hieroglyphic text to the lower body in nine lines. The text is from Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead. The face and details of the agricultural implements are finely modelled, and a large percentage of the hieroglyphs, often obscured by the glaze, are readable.

PROVENANCE:
From a French private collection; aquired Paris before 1980.

FOOTNOTES:
"The Book of the Dead" is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary text known as "The Book of Coming [or Going] Forth By Day". It is a description of the ancient Egyptian conception of the afterlife and a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife. The Book of the Dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll and placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased. In Chapters 1-16, the section from which the inscription is drawn, the deceased enters the tomb, descends to the underworld, and the body regains its powers of movement and speech.