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Lot 41TP

An Egyptian limestone relief with hieroglyphs

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

Sold for £31,250 inc. premium

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An Egyptian limestone relief with hieroglyphs
Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C.
Carved in sunken relief with a monumental inscription, part of a funerary spell: '[...]Nephthys who protects her brother Osiris in every nome[...]', a frieze of stars below, traces of red, blue and green pigment remaining, 105cm x 40cm

Footnotes

Provenance:
A.B. collection, Belgium, prior to 1983.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 9 December 1999, lot 228.

The use of the star motif as a representation of the heavens was employed in ancient Egyptian temple reliefs from the Old Kingdom to Ptolemaic Period; see R. Drenkhahn, Ägyptische Reliefs im Kestner-Museum Hannover, Hannover, 1989, pp. 38-9, for a Fifth Dynasty band of text with stars, and C. Aldred, L'Egypte du crépuscule, Paris, 1980, pp. 74-75, for a Ptolemaic relief from the temple of Dendera, which also preserves monumental hieroglyphs over an iconographic band with stars in the field.

The goddess Nephthys, along with her sister Isis, was associated with protection of the dead in the afterlife. This originated from their role as protectors and restorers of their brother Osiris' body after he was killed by the envious Set.

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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
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