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Lot 209

An Egyptian greywacke figural fragment of a priest

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

Sold for £18,750 inc. premium

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An Egyptian greywacke figural fragment of a priest
Middle Kingdom - Second Intermediate Period, 13th Dynasty, circa 1786-1710 B.C.
Comprising the left side of the body, once standing, his left arm by his side, wearing a high waisted long kilt, the figure usurped in 22nd Dynasty and a pectoral of Ptah incised on his chest, a column of hieroglyphic text down the front of the legs is an 'Appeal to the Living' and reads: 'O living ones on earth, every Chief Director of Craftsmen, [every] divine office, [...]', 19.2cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a notable East German private collection, formed before 1975.
The collection was subject to a staged tax proceeding by the communist regime and its secret police (known as STASI) from 1973 to 1975 in order to transfer the collection to state possession. The fragment of a priest was received by the Antiquities Museum of the University of Leipzig in around 1975 or 1976. It was restituted from there to the heir of the former collector in 2015.

Published:
R. Krauspe, Statuen und Statuetten. Katalog Ägyptischer Sammlungen in Leipzig, 1, 1997, pp. 130-1, no. 284.

The title 'Chief Director of Craftsmen', was exclusive to Memphite high-priests and is not included in 'Appeals to the Living', which suggests that the statue owner himself was just such a high-priest. Of course this fits well with the Ptah pectoral on the chest and it tends to suggest that both the pectoral and the inscription date to the time of the statue's usurpation, although it can't be ruled out that both the original and the ultimate owner were high-priests of Memphis.

Additional information

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