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Three Egyptian papyrus fragments image 1
Three Egyptian papyrus fragments image 2
Three Egyptian papyrus fragments image 3
Lot 245

Three Egyptian papyrus fragments

3 July 2019, 10:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £6,312.50 inc. premium

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Three Egyptian papyrus fragments
Comprising a vignette from Chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, the Weighing of the Heart, depicting the deceased offering incense to two uraei, with two registers of processing funerary deities and Anubis under the scale below, the Devourer and Thoth recording the result of the weighing, Late Period, 26th-30th Dynasty, circa 664-332 B.C.; a funerary magical papyrus fragment, with thirty-eight columns of hieroglyphic inscriptions for the son of Horkheby, justified, begotten of the Lady of the House Djed-Bastet-Iwesankh, Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, circa 1069-945 B.C.; and an Egyptian linen mummy wrapping, with four scenes of the deceased in priestly dress presenting altars to deities holding knives and sceptres, above four columns of hieratic text from Chapter 147 of the Book of the Dead, the spell of Gates, with mention of gates four to seven, Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C., 24cm high, 40.8cm long and 25.5cm long respectively

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, UK, acquired in the 1960s; and thence by descent.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 6 October 2011, lot 43.
Private collection, UK, acquired at the above sale.

The second fragment is notable in its combination of funerary and magical elements, as texts are typically either solely magical or funerary, due to their differing functions of protecting a person during life versus in the afterlife.

Additional information

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