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An Egyptian wood fertility figure image 1
An Egyptian wood fertility figure image 2
Lot 103*

An Egyptian wood fertility figure

Antiquities
7 July 2016, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£10,000 - £15,000

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An Egyptian wood fertility figure
Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty, circa 2040-1991 B.C.
With a paddle-shaped schematic body, angular shoulders, a rounded base and rectangular head, both sides painted in black and red, one side wearing a spotted dress with a line drawing of an animal headed figure below, probably Taueret, the other side with a broad collar, the breasts indicated by painted circles above a tunic with diagonal line decoration, 21.5cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Harer Family Trust Collection, acquired on 20 February 1997.
With Marianne Maspero, Paris, since the 1970s. Accompanied by a copy of the invoice.

Exhibited:
San Bernardino, Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, 2000-2006.
San Antonio Museum of Art, 1997-1999.

Literature:
These fertility figures, also known as 'paddle dolls', date primarily to the Eleventh Dynasty but continue to be made through the Middle Kingdom and possibly as late as the early Eighteenth Dynasty. It has been suggested that they served as 'concubines of the dead' or magical implements to assure fertility: Cf. A.K. Capel and G. Markoe, eds., Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven, Women in Ancient Egypt, New York, 1996, p. 65, no. 14.

Additional information

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