
Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
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Sold for £2,375 inc. premium
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Head of Department
Provenance:
Corporal G. S. N. collection, New Zealand, found in a cave on the banks of the Nile and brought home circa 1943; and thence by descent to the present owner, Australia.
An almost identical mallet, dated to the reign of Senusret I during the 12th Dynasty (circa 1956-1911 B.C.), is illustrated in Ancient Egypt Transformed. The Middle Kingdom, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015, p. 156, cat. no. 90B. Sir W.M. Flinders Petrie comments that the form of such mallets/mauls used by Egyptian masons and carpenters has not yet been superseded. For mallets of similar conical form see W.M.F. Petrie, Tools and Weapons , London, 1974, p. 40, pl. XLVI nos 66-68.