Footnotes

Provenance:
Reputedly discovered at Karnak.
Ernst Kleinberger collection, acquired in Luxor, Egypt from Mahmoud Bey Mohasseb in 1935.
J. Burgauer collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above in 1946.
P.B. collection, Saint Gallen, Switzerland.
with Bigler Fine Arts, Zurich.
Property from a Princely Collection, acquired from the above 1 November 2007.

Published:
H. Brandl & J. Friedrich Quack, 'A Bichrome Faience Statuette of Bastet from the Reign of Takeloth III', in Kleine Götter - Grosse Götter, Festschrift für Dieter Kessler zum 65. Geburtstag, Tuna el-Gebel, Band 4, 2013, p. 67-90.

Originally of turquoise glaze, with light yellow inlays, this impressive figure depicts the lion-headed goddess wearing a bronze uraeus, holding a wedjat sceptre and seated on an intricate throne. Between the base of the throne and the integral base are a Nubian and an Asiatic bound captive in high relief; their upper bodies flank the goddess's feet. The square sides of the richly decorated throne are embellished with upright snakes, a seated deity, and lion-headed deities, representing the Egyptian decans (see Brandl & Friedrich Quack, ibid., for a full description of this unusual iconography). Most importantly, the back of the throne preserves two cartouches above four enemy heads: a Son of Ra cartouche, the nomen of Takelot, and a King's Wife cartouche, for Betjet. The partially preserved inscription on the left side of the plinth reads: '[...] the prophetess of Mut and King's Daughter Irti-Bastet to be living'; the partially preserved inscription on the right side reads: '[...] Bastet, mistress of life who causes the prophetess of Mut Irti-Bastet to be healthy and living'.

See J. Berlandini, Hommages à la Mémoire de Serge Sauneron (1927-1976), I, Institut Français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, 1979, p. 92-98, pl. 15 for a statue base, probably of Takelot III, which also mentions a Queen Betjet, likely originally set up in the precinct of Mut at Karnak-South (K.A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, 2nd ed., Warminster, 1986, p. 580, section 521). According to the surviving inscriptions on the integral plinths of the present lot, this statuette was originally dedicated to a princess and prophetess of Mut named Irti-Bastet; Brandl discusses the parentage of this princess, arguing that she was likely the daughter of Takelot III and a queen Irti-Bastet, predecessor to Betjet, attested in an inscription on a coffin fragment in Berlin (ibid., p.83). It is likely that this stuatutte once belonged to a temple of the goddess Mut, hence if the Theban origin suggested by the 1935 note and confirmed by Brandl and Friedrich Quack is accurate, this temple most likely would have been that of Mut at Asher.