A complete wooden gesso-painted sarcophagus of female form housed in a custom-built Edwardian glazed wooden display case, depicting the deceased wearing a tripartite wig with long lappets, fleshy face with painted detailing, wide Broad Collar with falcon-headed terminals, each wearing a sun disk, a staff with shuti symbol to each side of the collar, a figure of Sobek beneath the staff; beneath the collar kneeling Nut with her wings spread, wearing the solar disk and holding a feather in each hand, Wedjat-eye standards on either side of the goddess; the leg area of Tetosiris coffin organised as a text apron of five columns with a formula of offering and the genealogy of the deceased, protected on both sides by the Four Sons of Horus, reading:

1. Words spoken by Osiris, foremost of the westerners, good god, lord of Rosetau
2. Isis the great, mother of the god, who resides in Akhmim and Nephtys, sister of the god. That they might give
3. an offering consisting of bread and beer, oxen and fowl, wine, milk, incense, cloth and all things
4. good and pure to the ka of the Osiris Tetosiris
5. daughter of Tutu, born of Lady Tasheritmin

the sarcophagus resting on a rectangular base with a band of hieroglyphs, reading:

front: 'A boon which the king gives to Osiris, foremost of the westerners, lord of [...]'

left: 'Rosetau Osiris (?) make perfect (?) (?) [… ...]'

right: 'Tetosiris, daughter of Tutu [… … ...]'.

PROVENANCE:
By repute discovered in the necropolis of Akin.
Victorian or Edwardian collection, based on the custom-built display case.
Acquired in The Hague, Holland, 1961.
With Christie’s, London, 7 November 2001, lot 394.
Accompanied by copies of the relevant Christie's catalogue pages and a copy of the Christie's purchase invoice.
Private collection of Egyptologist Paul Whelan, Hertfordshire, UK.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Alberto Maria Pollastrini.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.11034-182413.

LITERATURE:
See Abdelhalim, A., The Stela of Nes-Hor from Akhmim CG 22142, Shedet 6 (2019); Elias, J., Examination of the Three Egyptian Coffins in the Buffalo Museum of Scienze, Ahmim Mummy Studies Research Paper 96-1 (1996, revised 2012); Tamas, M., Takwa, S., Kholoud, A., The Ensemble of Djed-Hor (Coffin, Cartonnage and Hypocephalus) in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, RdE 62, 2011; Rindi Nuzzolo Carlo, 'Tradition and Transformation: retracing Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures from Akhmim in Museums and Private Collections' in Todd Gillen (ed.), (Re)productive Traditions in Ancient Egypt (=Aegyptiaca Leodiensia), Liège, 2017.