Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Property from the Michel Holley Collection (lots 1-9)
Lot 4
An Egyptian bronze solar boat finial
1 December 2020, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £42,750 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Antiquities specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
An Egyptian bronze solar boat finial
Late Period, circa 4th Century B.C.
The curving vessel forming the finial to a cylindrical attachment, the prow and stern in the form of stylised lotus flowers, with two attachment loops beneath the stern, with standing figures of falcon-headed Horus wearing the double crown flanked by Isis and Nephthys standing before the central openwork naos, surmounted by a Horus falcon, 30cm high, 24cm long
Late Period, circa 4th Century B.C.
The curving vessel forming the finial to a cylindrical attachment, the prow and stern in the form of stylised lotus flowers, with two attachment loops beneath the stern, with standing figures of falcon-headed Horus wearing the double crown flanked by Isis and Nephthys standing before the central openwork naos, surmounted by a Horus falcon, 30cm high, 24cm long
Footnotes
Provenance:
Michel Holley collection, Paris, acquired prior to 1972.
The present lot is an exceedingly rare survival. The solar barge was the vessel of the sun god Ra, and the most well-known bronze of this type is the solar barque of the pharaoh Djedhor, now at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, inv. no. 168. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo holds another complete example, and an incomplete bronze solar boat finial can be found in the Museum Vleeshuis, Antwerp, acc. no. 79.1. (E. Gubel, Du Nil a L'Escaut , Brussels, 1991, p. 244-5, fig. 326).
Full-size solar barges have been discovered buried near pyramids and temples, most notably the Khufu ship excavated from the Great Pyramid of Giza and dating to the 4th Dynasty. By the Late Period, this insignia was used in religious processions and ceremonies, and depicted the pharaoh accompanying Ra on his journeys.
Michel Holley (b. 1924) is a noted architect, and sailing enthusiast. M. Holley studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the studio of Otello Zavaronia, and was elected Grand Massier in 1954. A keen member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, M. Holley took part in the 1973 Cowes Admiralty Cup with the Izenah IV. His love of the nautical inspired his collection, which though drawn from the breadth of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures, is bound by a fascination with seafaring. Formed in the early 1970s, this collection comes to auction for the first time.