A rare Egyptian faience overseer ushabti to Hori, son of Nakht-Amun

A rare Egyptian faience overseer ushabti to Hori, son of Nakht-Amun

Code: 2294

£1,500.00
Description: A rare turquoise blue faience overseer ushabti with black tripartite wig and details added in black. A vertical column of text reads ‘The Osiris, the scribe Hori, son of Nakht-Amun, justified’. A mid body horizontal fracture repaired and patchy surface wear but a nice example that can be traced to a specific tomb. An old label glued on the reverse, the text reading ‘22nd Dynasty ushabti’. From Gurob (Fayum), tomb 36.

Size: 132 mm/5.2 ins. high

Culture: Egyptian

Date: Late New Kingdom/Third Intermediate Period, 20th-22nd Dynasty, c. 1186-715 B.C.

Provenance: From the Hoare Family Collection, Wiltshire.

References: See No. 33 (p.73-74) in Janes, G. 2012. The Shabti Collections Volume 5: A selection from Manchester Museum, Olicar House Publications, Cheshire, for four examples with variant text now in the Manchester Museum. According to Janes (2012) a distribution list from the excavations (1927) says the contents of the tomb were shipped to Chicago, however, it is clear that some shabtis went elsewhere and a few passed into private hands. A worker shabti was offered for sale at the Drouot (Ferri & Associés), Paris, in their sale on 13 April 2012 (Lot 104) and the same shabti was offered as part of Lot 380 at Bonhams, Knightsbridge, London, in their Antiquities Sale of 23 October 2012.

Our thanks to Simone Musso for help with translation of the glyphs and for alerting us to the Drouot and Bonhams example.