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An Egyptian limestone sculptor's model image 1
An Egyptian limestone sculptor's model image 2
Lot 39*

An Egyptian limestone sculptor's model

Antiquities
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£3,000 - £5,000

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An Egyptian limestone sculptor's model
Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C.
Carved in shallow relief with the lower half of a figure of Amun or a king striding forward, wearing a kilt and a long ceremonial bull's tail, on the right a sketch of possibly a squatting monkey wearing a royal crown, the reverse carved with single hieroglyphs including a heron, a seated god, and three other symbols, 13cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, Latin America, probably acquired in the 1960-70s.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 13 June 1996, lot 189.
S. Carroll collection, New York, 1996-2016.

Since the Early Dynastic Period, animals were used to represent the strength and prowess of the pharaoh and his god-like nature. Along with the lion, the most popular animal was the bull. In public ceremonies, the power of the bull was evoked by the ceremonial bull's tail hanging from the pharaoh's kilt and one of the most important festivals was the Heb-sed, the Festival of the Bull's Tail (see E. F. Morris, 'The Pharaoh and Pharaonic Office', in A. B. Loyd (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Egypt, London, 2010, p. 212). The importance of the bull's tail is also reflected in Egyptian art, for instance being represented in one of the most iconic pieces of the Pre-Dynastic period, the Narmer palette; see K. Michalowski, Art of Ancient Egypt, New York, 1977, p. 57.

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Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk
A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces
A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
A large Etruscan Impasto Ware pottery olla
A Roman marble torso of a youth wearing a tunic
A Roman marble head of a satyr
An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration
A Greek bronze horse
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A Greek green glazed faience hedgehog aryballos
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