Egyptian Pale Blue Faience Shabti

£ 500.00

A finely modelled Egyptian pale blue glazed faience shabti, featuring a dorsal pillar to the reverse. The shabti is shown wearing a tripartite wig and a plaited false beard, and holding a pick, a hoe and the rope of the seed bag in his crossed hands; the seed bag falling behind the shabti’s left shoulder. Facial features have been rendered in an extremely naturalist manner. The body, usually inscribed with incised rows of hieroglyphs from Chapter Six of the Book of the Dead, has in this case been left unworked.

Date: Circa 664-332 BC
Period: Late Period
Condition: Good condition, with minor chip to the beard.

SOLD

Product Code: ES-116
Category: Tag:

Shabtis, also known as ushabtis, are the most numerous of all Egyptian antiquities and they were originally placed in Ancient Egyptian tombs to assist the deceased in the afterlife. Shabtis were often inscribed with titles and names, sometimes including parentage of the person that made them as a part of funerary equipment. Such figurines in mummified form were also inscribed with passages from Chapter Six of Book of the Dead, the intention of which was to secure safety for the deceased in the afterlife. This inscription would have begun, ‘Sḥḏ WsỈr ḥm-nṯr prt-ḫrw….’ (‘The illuminated one, the Osiris, the god, an offering…’).

To discover more about these fascinating objects, please visit our relevant post: Egyptian Shabti: Companions in the Afterlife.

Dimensions H 11 cm
Faience

Blue Faience

Region

North Africa

You may also like…