
Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
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Sold for £12,112.50 inc. premium
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Head of Department

Associate Specialist
Provenance:
Private collection, UK, acquired by the mid 1960s or earlier; and thence by descent to the present owner.
The Fetish of Abydos was the emblem of the region surrounding the ancient city of Abydos, and of its patron god, Osiris. The Fetish of Abydos depicted a beehive-like container topped by plumes, which was thought to hold a reliquary containing the head of Osiris. This priest was likely once holding an image of the god or another, associated, fetish before him.
For a striding priest wearing the same type of kilt and with similar facial features, see a statuette in the Brooklyn Museum, acc. no. 37.363E. For other bronze striding priests dating to the Third Intermediate Period see the Metropolitan Museum, New York, acc. nos 47.105.3 and 2010.259.