Phoenician Amethyst Scarab with Horse’s Head and Later Aramaic Inscription

D-shaped in section with tripartite wig and false beard. 7.95 grams, 61 mm



Ex London, UK, collection, 1990s.

Possibly a fragment of a cloak, wool on linen, S-twist tapestry, decorated with a band of lanceolate leaves and two bigger opposed leaves in red, green and yellow colour. 345 grams total, mount: 86.5 cm



Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.

A. Gayet, who excavated the Necropolis of Antinoe, showed that the cloaks of Coptic-era nobles could be ornate, with decoration applied or woven into the fabric. Realised in dark blue, red, orange, yellow, green, brown and off-white linen and wool, the leaves are usually positioned inside a central medallion, also lanceolate, divided by a small leaf surmounted by a flower.

Wearing daily dress and carrying agricultural implements, with dark blue details including his short wig with side-lock, designating him as a Sem-priest of Ptah at Memphis, the text on the kilt naming him as 'Sem-priest and King's son Khaemwaset'; with round-topped back support, the reverse with two columns of hieroglyphs with part of the shabti formula: "He says: O shabti, if one counts, if one is reckoned to do all the works that are to be done there in the God’s land—now indeed obstacles are implanted therewith—as a man at his duties, ‘Here I am,’ you shall say when you are counted off to cultivate the fields, transport by boat the sand of the east to the west and vice versa; ‘Here I am,’ you shall say". 284 grams, 15.1 cm



With Barakat, Beverly Hills: reputed to be from the Omar Pasha Sultan collection, (1806-1871) but unpublished in the 1929 catalogue of the collection, nor in Aubert's 1976 article on the shabtis in the collection. Bonhams, London, 1 May 2013, no.282. Accompanied by copies of the relevant Bonhams catalogue pages. 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.12938-243536.

Prince Khaemwaset was the fourth-ranked son of Ramesses II and the second born to Queen Isetnofret. More is known about Khaemwaset than any other son of Ramesses II, attested by over 150 objects, ranging from statues to temple reliefs. He is traditionally regarded as the “first Egyptologist” for his restoration of monuments belonging to earlier kings, including the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara. Recent reassessment, however, suggests that some of these activities involved dismantling parts of ancient structures for reuse in his father’s temple constructions.