An Egyptian Limestone Relief Panel, Sakkara, 5th Dynasty, reign of Neferirkare, circa 2500-2480 B.C.

probably the lintel from above a false door, finely carved in sunk and shallow relief with two depictions of the owner, Nikaure, Judge and Chief Administrator of the Palace, Judge and Inspector of the Bookkeepers, Judge Guardian of Nekhen, and Prophet of Re and Hathor in the Sun-temple of Neferirkare, seated face to face on bovine-legged chairs before a large array of offerings laid out between them, the image on the left wearing a kilt with trapezoidal overfold, ceremonial bull's tail(?), garment tied at his shoulder with two laces, one held in his left hand, broad collar, short beard, and wig with striated terminals indicated, his right hand resting on his lap, the image on the right wearing a wrap-around kilt, sash, broad collar, short beard, and wig, his right hand resting on offerings, a papyrus-umbel scepter in his left hand, the calf muscles of the left leg clearly indicated, the face of each figure with large almond-shaped eye, contoured upper lid, and long tapering eyebrow in relief, the four registers of columns of inscription in the field enumerating and counting the offerings to Nikaure, the three columns of inscription above each figure and a long line of inscription below each register repeating Nikaure's numerous titles, the offerings illustrated including bread, trussed quadrupeds, fowl, meat, and vegetables, contained in and resting on a variety of containers and supports.

Count Alexandre Louis Henry de Vaucelles, Château de Lignou, brought to France from Egypt in 1829
by descent in his family until the 1980s, Château de Lignou
Drouot, Paris, Laurin-Guilloux-Buffetaud-Tailleur
Commissaires-priseurs, November 23rd, 1988, no. 69, illus.
Sotheby's, New York, June 9th, 2004, no. 54, illus.

Pierre du Bourguet, "Le monument Vaucelles: Une stèle-pancarte de l'Ancien Empire d'un modèle peu commun," Mélanges Maspéro, vol. 66/4, 1961, pp. 11-16, pls. I-IV
Bertha Porter and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, III: Memphis, Part 2: Saqqâra to Dashûr, Oxford, 1981, p. 697

As shown and generally very good. Note that the figure on the left is more worn than the figure on the right, particularly the upper arm of the left figure. Small repair with restorations along the fracture line in front of the toe of the figure on the right, which results in the loss of the end of the big toe of the right foot. Various chips and abrasions as shown. Brackets of old metal base (no longer extant) have scraped top and bottom edges of relief in places. There is not a precise join between the two fragments
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According to Pierre du Bourguet (op. cit.), this monument is unusual in two respects: normally the deceased "is represented only once at one end of the list and, if he has a counterpart, it is in most cases his wife. Here he is shown with his name, but with different titles at each end... The second feature worth noting is how the scribe placed a list of the deceased's titles under each register of offerings; each title is included except at the end of the lower register... and all of them are preceded by the preposition ["to"], which probably emphasizes, referring to the magical power of the formula, that these offerings are meant for the deceased and for him only."

The present relief was probably placed above a false door, "which theoretically communicated directly with the burial chamber," and through which "the spirit of the deceased could...enter and leave the chapel" (S. D'Auria, P. Lacovara, and C. H. Roehrig, Mummies and Magic, The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Boston, 1988, p. 54). Relatives would place offerings in front of the door. The Chapel for the funerary cult of Nikaure contained two false doors, now in the Cairo Museum (CG 1414 and 1416: L. Borchardt, Denkmäler des alten Reiches (ausser den Statuen) im Museum von Kairo nr. 1295-1808, Berlin, 1937, pp. 80-84, 87-89, pls. 19-20). They give the name of his wife, Ihat, Prophetess of Hathor.

On his trip to Egypt in 1826, in the wake of Napoleon's campaign and in the full swing of the Egyptomania that ensued, the young traveler and scholar Louis de Vaucelles (1798-1851) was among the first European explorers to go beyond the second cataract of the Nile into the land of Nubia. He pioneered the field of Nubian studies with his book Chronlogie des Monuments de la Nubie, which he published in Paris in 1829. Champollion himself mentiones him in his letters and diaries (Lettres et Journaux de Champollion, H. Hartleben, ed., vol. 1, Paris, 1902, p. 272). For more on his life and scholarly achievements see Pierre du Bourguet, Bulletin de la societé française d'égyptologie, vol. 14, 1962. A drawing of this relief by Nestor L'Hôte, the French draughtsman and archaeologist, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Nouvelles acquisitions françaises, MSS.20414, 6th carton, X). L'Hôte was in Egypt in 1828-1829, and again in 1838-1839.