Romano-Egyptian Bronze Sistrum Fragment with Goat

Comprising: band of vertically strung faience tubular beads with integral tie at each end; below, a fringe of vertically strung groups of eight similar beads on a loop of thread with annular beads at the junction with the band and more similar at the outer end of the fringe; ancient cord. 50 grams, 33.5 cm



Ex William Ohly, 1883-1955. Ex Abbey Museum, Barnet, by descent.

Modelled in the round in a crouching pose on a rectangular base with an attachment peg. 145 grams, 73 mm



From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.

This figure most likely comes from a shrew coffin or votive statuette. The dwarf shrew (Crocidura nana) and Flower’s shrew (Crocidura floweri) were among many animal species buried in dedicated cemeteries across various parts of Egypt. Ironically, these tiny creatures symbolised Horus in his raptor-headed form — a figure who, in reality, would have preyed upon them. Shrews were associated with Khenty-irty, the “seeing-and-blind god,” due to their ability to navigate darkness. It may be possible to read the shrew’s symbolism as that of seeking light in darkness, representing the Egyptian belief in the deceased’s journey through the hours of the night before rebirth at dawn. Radiographic analysis of a bundle containing about twenty-one shrews shows that they were dried whole, with no evisceration, preserved by being ‘pickled’ in natron.

Group of amuletic beads and pendants, including Bes with a feathered headdress, the goddess Taweret, a Hathor head with characteristic curled wig, a vulture, and others. 3 grams total, 12.5-19.6 mm



with Archaeologia, Switzerland, before 1983. Ex private North American collection. London private collection, 2016.