Francesca Hickin
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Lot 7
An Egyptian polychrome wood sarcophagus panel
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £5,000 inc. premium
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An Egyptian polychrome wood sarcophagus panel
Middle Kingdom, late 12th Dynasty, circa 1890-1793 B.C.
From the upper end of the East side of a sarcophagus for a woman, a stylised false door in the central section flanked by two columns of blue painted hieroglyphs on an ochre ground, on the left referring to the 'Town gods', and on the right to the Lesser Ennead, the lower section of both columns reading: 'True of voice [...]', 47cm x 21cm
Middle Kingdom, late 12th Dynasty, circa 1890-1793 B.C.
From the upper end of the East side of a sarcophagus for a woman, a stylised false door in the central section flanked by two columns of blue painted hieroglyphs on an ochre ground, on the left referring to the 'Town gods', and on the right to the Lesser Ennead, the lower section of both columns reading: 'True of voice [...]', 47cm x 21cm
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Görres Buchhandlung, Saarbrücken.
Private collection, Saarland, Germany, acquired from the above 7 April 1973.
with Peretz & Ball Auktionhaus, Saarbrücken.
Private collection, Rheinland-Pfalz, until 2017.
The Lesser Ennead of Heliopolis was a group of nine deities which included Horus, Thoth and Maat. It was the counterpart of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, centered around the god Ra as the first principle from whom the other gods derived. While the Great Ennead was concerned with the mythological creation of the world, the Lesser seems to have been concerned with the civil and moral organization of mankind; see A. Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, New York, 2003, pp. 103-107.
A false door was depicted on the East side of Egyptian sarchophagi, in correspondence with the mummy's side-ways-turned face. It was meant to provide a symbolic means for the deceased to leave the coffin to receive offerings. A 12th Dynasty coffin for Ameny is similarly decorated with a repeated false door motif - see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 11.150.39a, b.