Description:
A large composite shabti, made for the Overseer of the Treasury Psamtek, whose good name is Iahmes, the son of Bastetiiridies. Psamtek is holding pick and hoe in his crossed hands and is carrying a small seed back over his left shoulder. His face, with a broad nose that is typical for all the shabtis of this important man, has a friendly expression. His tripartite wig and plaited beard are rendered with great detail. With back pillar and plinth.
Hermann Schlögl has suggested (on the basis of the shape of the face) that this shabti may come from middle Egypt.
The ushabti has eight lines of hieroglyphs, containing spell 6 from the Book of the Dead, the so-called shabti-spell.
Background information:
Literature:
Hans D. Schneider, Shabtis - An Introduction to the History of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Statuettes. With a Catalogue of the Collection of Shabtis in the National Museum of Leiden. (3 volumes, Leiden, 1977), Volume II, p. 178, no. 5.3.1.134 and pl. 120; Volume 3, pl. 60;
Jacques-F. Aubert – Liliane Aubert, Statuettes Égyptiennes, Chaouabtis, Ouchebtis (Paris, 1974), p. 225;
Hermann Schlögl - Andreas Brodbeck, Ägyptische Totenfiguren aus öffentlichen und privaten Sammlungen der Schweiz (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, Series Archeologica, 7) (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Freiburg Schweiz, Universitätsverlag, 1990), p. 278, no. 195;
H. de Meulenaere, Le surnom égyptien à la Basse Epoque (Istanbul, 1966), p. 13, no 38;
Hermann Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen (3 volumes, Glückstadt - Hamburg, 1935-1976), Volume I, p. 12, no. 19; p. 90, no. 7 (for the name of the mother); p. 136, no. 8.
Dating:
26th dynasty or shortly after
Size:
Height 17.5 cm.
Provenance:
Private UK collection, acquired in the early 1970s.
Condition:
Intact; a few small spots where the outer layer of the faience was affected, probably when the piece was fired in antiquity; some staining and discoloration as visible on the photographs.
SOLD
Stock number:
E0293