Footnotes

• Provenance:
  Lady V.S. Meux (1847-1910) collection, Theobald's Park, Hertfordshire.
  Offered for sale by Waring & Gillow Ltd, who held an auction of Lady Meux's collection at Theobald's Park on 15-26 May 1911, lot 1527a, though the stele remained at Theobald Park until rediscovery between 1969-1972. The stele then remained in situ until the Bonhams auction.
  Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 4 July 1995, lot 47.
  Gottfried and Helga Hertel collection, Cologne, acquired at the above sale.
  
  Published:
  E.A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Antiquities in the possession of Lady Meux at Theobald's Park, London, 1896, p. 135, no. 53.
  P. Munro, Die spätägyptischen Totenstelen, Glückstadt, 1973.
  M.-T. Derchain-Urtel, Priester im Tempel, Wiesbaden, 1989, p.236.
  
  The name Padi-Bast means 'He whom the goddess Bast has given', and was a common name from the Late Period onwards. Padi-Bast held numerous priesthoods, including that of the sema-priest, and may have had responsibility for the clothing of cult statues. The prayers and hymns on this stele are directed to various manifestations of the sun god Re: Harakhty (the rising sun), Khepre (the midday sun), and Atum (the setting sun). The dedication on this stele expresses the hope that the deceased will join with the sun god on his eternal journey through the sky in the Day-Barque and Night-Barque.
  
  This stele is very similar to Stele 892 in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek; this stele has the same spelling mistakes as the Copenhagen stele, and the text is practically identical, intimating that they were made in the same workshop. For the Copenhagen stele, see O. Koefoed-Petersen, Les Stèles Égyptiennes, Copenhagen, 1948, p.48, no. 63.
  
  Lady Valerie Susan Meux acquired her collection of nearly 1800 objects during two visits to Egypt in 1882 and 1895-6. Lady Meux tried to leave her collection to the British Museum, but the trustees declined her bequest, resulting in the Waring & Gillow sale of 1911.