Large Mounted Egyptian Coptic Textile Pair with Animals

The head of goddess Bastet modelled in the round with alert ears and eyes, ears pierced; hollow-formed. 40.4 grams, 33.6 mm high



Acquired in the mid 1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s.

The feline's pierced ears likely once held earrings or other ornaments. It was probably attached to a statuette of a cat, whose body may have been crafted from wood. The cat was sacred to Bastet, a protective mother goddess and the daughter of the sun god Re. Amulets provided the wearer with the goddess's protection. Her name means ‘she of the bast [ointment jar],’ which may have contained a substance favoured by or exclusive to royalty. Originally, Bastet was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, but by the late New Kingdom, she was typically shown with a cat's head. She is sometimes portrayed with kittens, emphasising her maternal role as a fierce protector of her offspring.

Rectangular relief featuring three horizontal bands of hieroglyphic text, which preserve part of an offering formula and two titles: Overseer of all fruit trees (ı͗my-rꜢ ḫt nb(t) bnrt) and Overseer of the King’s repast (ı͗my-rꜢ Ꜥbw-rꜢ nswt); a vertical panel displays two more titles: Courtier of the (royal) house (smr pr), Director of the Dining Hall of the Great House (ḫrp sḥ pr-ꜤꜢ), and the deceased's name Shepset (šps.t); to the right, there is a standing figure of the deceased dressed in a long kilt and holding a staff of office; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 27.3 kg total, 70 cm wide including stand



Acquired 1970s-1996. Private collection, Switzerland. with a North American collector. London collection, 2016. Accompanied by an academic report by Egyptologist Paul Whelan. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12944-244463.

The deceased's name is somewhat unusual. The name ends with a bread loaf sign, suggesting it belongs to a female, which is clearly not the case here. Even if one reads the seated figure as a determinative, which would render the name as Set (st), this too would belong to a female. It could simply be an error by the layout scribe and/or sculptor, or the name may be incomplete. The lower border was a decorative feature used both horizontally and vertically to define distinct zones, or registers, in tomb reliefs. The original position of the present fragment may be suggested by a similarly arranged text-and-figure composition decorating the lintel of the doorway leading to the funerary chapel in a tomb at Giza belonging to a man named Ankhaf. Although oriented in the opposite direction, the staff-holding, standing figure of Ankhaf is depicted before a vertical column of inscription, with three longer horizontal bands of text to the right. The first two horizontal lines contain an offering formula invoking Anubis and Osiris, while the third line lists his titles. These are partly repeated in the vertical column, followed by Ankhaf’s name. The decorative border beneath the inscriptions on the present example would not seem out of place in such a setting. Another plausible location for the original placement of the present fragment would be the architrave of a tomb’s false door – the symbolic portal through which the deceased could re-enter the world of the living and partake in food offerings made by priests or relatives. In either location, the composition identifies the tomb owner by image and name, states his official credentials, and designates him as the sole recipient of the offerings listed in the accompanying formula.

Carved scarab with segmented carapace and legs. 6.45 grams, 23 mm



Ex Belinda Elliston collection, a member of the Egyptian Exploration Society, 1940s onwards.